Inbound vs. Outbound Sales: Which Is Better?

When it comes to sales strategies, many businesses face the tough decision of choosing between inbound and outbound sales. 

Well, if you’re also facing this dilemma… then don’t worry. 

In this blog post, we have discussed inbound and outbound sales in detail to help you determine which is the best sales strategy for you!

Key Insight: The most effective sales approach often combines inbound and outbound strategies! 

How? 

Well, keep reading!

Inbound Sales Vs. Outbound Sales: Table of Contents

• What is Inbound Sales?
  • Key Strategies for Inbound Sales
• What is Outbound Sales?
  • Key Strategies for Outbound Sales
• Inbound Sales vs. Outbound Sales: What to Use?
• Can You Use Both Inbound vs Outbound Sales?
• Key Points to Remember
• FAQs

Inbound Vs Outbound Sales: What is The Difference?

Go through this comparison table to identify the key differences between Inbound and Outbound sales👇

What is Inbound Sales? 

Inbound sales happen when a customer contacts you to inquire about your services/product. 

They know what you do and have learned about your product or services directly through search engines, content, word of mouth, etc.

In inbound sales, the involvement of a sales rep is quite minimal. They will be mostly required for converting high ticket clients.

Also, in order to convert prospects with inbound sales, you need to create engagement strategies to push them down the pipeline. 

You Should use Inbound Sales if:

• Your target audience is already looking for the type of product or service you offer. 
• You want to build trust and credibility to position yourself as an expert in your industry. 

Inbound Sales Example: 

For instance, let’s say you provide loyalty management software that allows small-to-midsize businesses to create customer reward programs.

To attract people to your company’s website, you have to create useful, high-quality content and simultaneously execute SEO efforts.

This content can be informative blog posts, helpful videos, or answers to questions on social forums like Reddit and Quora.

So, when your ICPs search the Internet for a query related to your business, like customer retention strategies, they will find relevant content from you.

When they find the solution and how you can help, they will ultimately sign up to avail your services.

The goal is to reach out to your prospects organically and communicate the benefits of your product and services.  

What Are the Key Strategies of Inbound Sales?

There are various ways in which you can make yourself visible in front of your customers; however, these are the most prominent strategies: 

1. SEO
2. Content Marketing
3. Social Media Marketing
4. Webinars

Let’s look at them in detail.

1. SEO

In this type of inbound sales, when prospective customers search for a keyword or phrase on any search engine, they will find a webpage in the search results for a product they might be interested in.

How it Works: 

So, SEO works in 3 ways:

• On-page SEO: Optimizing your web pages, URLs, meta tags, etc., with the right keywords in your industry.
  
  For instance, if we take the example of loyalty management software, relevant keywords would be “how to improve customer retention,” “best tools for customer loyalty,” “customer engagement strategies,” and more.
  
  You can do this by using tools like Ahrefs, Moz, etc.

• Technical SEO: This aspect of SEO enhances the user experience of your website, such as speed, clear structure, etc. 

• Off-page SEO: To build authority and rank in your domain, you may need to get backlinks from reputable websites. 

2. Content Marketing

To execute this inbound sales strategy, you must create relevant, high-quality, engaging content such as articles, videos, podcasts, and other formats.

You should use keywords and phrases relevant to your niche to attract and engage prospective customers.

How it Works: 

When your prospects search for “customer retention strategies,” a post published on your website appears in the results.

The blog post explains the best strategies to retain customers and how automating these processes can help save time and scale efforts.

The prospect signs up through one of the blog’s CTAs to explore the software and its features.

Convinced by what they see, they subscribe to the basic plan of your software.

3. Social Media Marketing

This type of inbound sales strategy involves creating an account on social media channels like LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram to promote your products and engage with target audiences.

You can also run paid advertisements and analyze the results to improve your strategies over time. 

How it Works: 

So you can choose the most suitable platform for your niche.

We would suggest Facebook(Meta) and LinkedIn for loyalty management software (i.e., B2B niche) because they will have a suitable audience base.

You can set the budget to run ads after selecting the relevant demographics and other ad settings.

You can use actionable text like, “Increase customer loyalty in just 3 easy steps with our software!” and include CTAs such as “Learn More” or “Get Started”.

Once customers click on the CTA, they will be redirected to the website. 

4. Webinars 

If you want to build authority and demonstrate yourself as a thought leader in your industry, you should use this inbound sales strategy.

Moreover, you can use the data collected from leads to optimize your strategy and improve your sales efforts. 

How it Works: 

One way webinars work is by demonstrating your authority, similar to content marketing and SEO.

You need to find the most relevant and latest topic in your niche and promote it with details, including day, date, and time, to get it in front of prospective customers.

What is Outbound Sales? 

Outbound sales happen when you directly reach out to your prospective customers.

Remember that these prospects may not be aware of your brand and services, so they are not expecting outreach. 

Hence, to ensure your prospect engages, you need to do extensive research to find their pain points and craft a cold call pitch and email. 

You Should use Outbound Sales if:

• You have an innovative product/service that is relatively new to the market and needs some awareness.
• You have a niche product that people may not know they need.

Outbound Sales Example

Taking the example from inbound sales, assume you are running loyalty management software that helps businesses retain customers by offering rewards and personalized experiences. 

However, many businesses are unaware that your software exists and how it can help them retain more customers and increase their sales.

In this case, you will be the first one to take the initiative to reach out to your prospective customers, such as retail stores, restaurants, or online shops.

You’ll then gather decision-makers’ contact information and reach out to them through cold calls and emails.

In these communications, you’ll explain how your software can help increase customer retention and boost revenue.

The objective here is to reach out to potential customers and directly communicate with them rather than waiting for them to find you. 

What Are the Key Strategies for Outbound Sales? 

Here are the strategies that you can use to make yourself seen in front of your customers: 

1. Cold Emailing
2. Cold Calling
3. Social Selling
4. Offline Events
5. Referral Marketing
6. Account Based Marketing
7. Partners & Affiliates
8. Internet Advertising

Let’s understand them!

1. Cold Emailing

Cold emailing is one of the most effective, scalable and cost efficient outbound sales strategies for generating leads. 

You need to start by finding the relevant ICPs and their email addresses, then email them about your product and its value.

Important Note: We highly recommend that your first cold email should not be too salesy. Try to make a connection first and then state the value you will be bringing to the table.

How it Works:

Your sales representatives will cold email marketing managers and CEOs of companies that would benefit from loyalty management software.

They will initiate a conversation by discussing common challenges of managing a loyalty program manually, and gradually pitch how your product can streamline this process.

Your sales reps should follow cold email best practices to ensure the campaigns are effective.

Doing so will help maintain high email deliverability while allowing you to scale your outreach.

After sending a few follow up emails they secure a meeting to discuss a potential deal. (Woah!) 

If you want the productivity of your SDRs you can use cold email software to automate and scale the entire process of cold emailing to close more deals. 

2. Cold Calling

The next prominent outbound sales technique you can try is cold calling.

It is similar in nature to cold emailing, but instead of emailing, you will be directly calling the prospect to discuss your product and its benefits. 

How it Works: 

One of the sales reps calls a restaurant manager to share information about your loyalty management software and its key features.

After discussing the pain points, your sales reps should tailor the offering on spot to make it relevant and attractive to the prospect.

This will make them more likely to schedule a meeting to take things further!

3. Social Selling

You would often find prospective customers looking for a solution to their problems on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.

This is where social selling can help!

You can start a conversation with them by offering them a solution and eventually turning them into paying customers..

Note: You can find leads by identifying people following certain keywords or in community groups that are relevant to your industry. 

How it Works: 

A sales rep searched for “struggles with customer retention” on LinkedIn and found a post by the CEO of a cafe chain in Italy sharing his struggle to retain customers.

The rep would connect with the CEO using a personalized note. After discussing the issues the CEO is facing, the rep would pitch your product.

4. Offline Events

Still a lot of sales happen in person, especially at B2B events and conventions!

This is where business leaders and prospective customers come together to discuss pain points and find solutions.

At such events, you can start conversations with attendees to see if they’re interested in your product and build strong relationships. 

Note: Offline events can indeed be a highly effective outbound sales technique, especially for businesses like real estate agencies, car dealerships, and others where personal interaction plays a critical role in customer decision-making

How it Works: 

Two team members from your company attend one of the largest B2B events.

There, they meet many potential customers and collect their contact information, with whom they follow up later through cold emails and phone calls. 

5. Referral Marketing

As the name suggests, this type of outbound sales happens when an existing customer recommends you to other businesses and encourages them to try your product. 

How it Works: 

One of your customers is impressed with your product and has a fantastic experience working with it.

The customer recommends your product to someone in their network who is looking for a similar solution. 

Impressed with the features, they sign up for your product and take the free trial. 

6. ABM (Account-Based Marketing)

In this type of outbound sales strategy, you focus on high-value accounts and tailor your marketing efforts specifically to them, rather than casting a wide net.

Unlike traditional marketing where you try to attract a lot of different customers, ABM focuses on very specific companies that you think are most likely to buy your products or services

You start by identifying companies that match your ideal customer profile, such as those visiting your website or showing interest in your content.

With tools that track account-level engagement, you can analyze customer behaviors, such as visiting key pages like pricing or product features, to understand where they are in the buying cycle.

Once you’ve qualified these accounts, you craft personalized marketing messages that directly address their needs.

Account based Marketing Framework: 

ABM> identify high-value accounts > analyze engagement > reach out with tailored marketing campaigns

How it Works:

For instance, you use an account intelligence tool to identify relevant website traffic, find accounts that visited your website multiple times, and check out pricing plans and key features.

You can figure out that they are interested in your product, so you can use their company name to get their contact information via a B2B lead finder and then reach out to them.

7. Partners & Affiliates

Affiliate or partnerships in outbound sales is a strategy where you reach out to popular influencers or companies in your niche (relevant to your industry) and ask them to promote your product.

You pay them a commission for every lead they generate.

How it Works:

While scrolling on LinkedIn, you find a top influencer who talks about customer engagement and retention strategies and has a massive following of 100k.

In the comment section of their posts, you notice many people who could be your prospective customers and might benefit from your product.

You can then reach out to the influencer with a pitch.

He can showcase the benefits of purchasing your software, such as how it can improve customer loyalty and increase repeat purchases.

When a sale is made through them, they earn a commission based on an agreed-upon percentage of the sale or a fixed amount.

It’s as simple as that—a win-win situation for both of you.

8. Internet Advertising

You should try this outbound sales strategy to increase your visibility in front of your prospects. However, you can run ads on the Internet via two major channels: search engines and social media. 

There is a bidding system for running ads on search engines where the one who bids highest will have their ad ranked higher.

For social media, the process is pretty simple; you only have to choose the demographics and other criteria. 

How it Works? 

• Search Engine Ads
  When a potential customer does an internet search for “customer retention software,” your software ad will display at the top, increasing the chance for your target audience to land on your page, once the prospect clicks on it, they will be directed to your website.

• Social Media Ads
  Regarding social media ads, many options are available to promote your business, such as Facebook Marketplace, LinkedIn, Instagram feed, etc.
  
  Similar to search engine ads, once an interested prospect clicks on the call-to-action (CTA), they are guided to your website.

Inbound Sales vs Outbound Sales: When to Use? 

So, by now, you must have picked your side inbound vs outbound sales? 

However, it can be an overwhelming decision with so much information and criteria to consider.

But as promised at the start, we will help you choose the best sales strategy for your business!

First, check out the infographic below 👇

Now, coming to the answer of which is best: Inbound vs. Outbound sales, the choice totally depends on various factors such as the type of your industry, target market, business goals, etc.

However, we at Saleshandy advocate the strategically blended approach. Many businesses, including ourselves, have found that a combination of inbound and outbound strategies works best!

Can You Use Both Inbound vs Outbound Sales?

To be honest, neither strategy is inherently better. You cannot get the best results by separately using Inbound or Outbound sales strategies.  

In fact, you should strategically blend both inbound and outbound sales strategies to get better results. 

How? 

By using an Inbound-led Outbound sales approach. (Which has proven to be a game changer) 

What is Inbound-led Outbound Sales? 

Inbound-led Outbound sales happen when you use inbound sales strategies to create a flow of organic leads and use the data and insights gathered from them to execute outbound sales activities.

Quite a brainer? 

Let’s break this down with an example! 

Inbound-led Outbound Example: 

Again, let’s go back to our previous example; 

Assume you are running a loyalty management software and launching free webinars on relevant industry topics to attract leads.

In one of the webinars on “Maximizing customer retention through effective loyalty programs,” your marketing team noticed that the webinar had many high-profile attendees who could be your best-fit ICP.

Now, the marketing team will pass their contact information to your sales team. 

The sales team will now use this information to execute targeted outbound outreach to these attendees, referencing the webinar and offering a personalized demo of your software. 

Your outbound efforts will increase the likelihood of closing the deal faster by targeting the right customers who are highly interested in your product. 

Inbound Vs Outbound Sales: Final Takeaway

One thing that you should takeaway after reading this blog is that though inbound and outbound sales may differ in terms of strategies, they are both important to growing your business. 

Remember, both need to work together to find leads and close more deals effectively.     

But one thing is certain: Saleshandy can help you reach out to your potential customers and close more deals—no matter what your strategy. Sign up and Try it for FREE!. 

FAQs

1. How Can I Personalize My Outreach in Outbound Sales to Increase Response Rates?

You can seamlessly personalize your outbound outreach with tools like Saleshandy. It has various advanced personalization features, like Merge Tags and Spintax, that allow you to personalize your emails at scale. Moreover, Saleshandy also offers various other features to increase your reply rate, like enhanced deliverability features, B2B Lead Finder, etc. 

2. Can Inbound and Outbound Sales Strategies Be Used Simultaneously?

Yes, absolutely. You can strategically blend inbound and outbound sales together to create a sales strategy that helps you attract leads through inbound efforts. Then, you can use outbound strategies to engage with them further, increasing your chances of closing deals faster. 

3. What are Some Common Tools Used for Executing Outbound Sales Strategies? 

You need tools to scale your outbound efforts. Here is the list of tools you can use: 

• Cold emailing: Saleshandy
• Cold calling: DialPad
• Social selling: LinkedIn