Chep

Bitcoin Adoption Specialist

How Do You Treat Inbound Vs Outbound Leads

I know every company/ product is different and some sales people focus solely on inbound or outbound. For the people who deal with both how do you treat these prospects differently?

I treat inbounds and outbounds the same

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MMMGood

Celebrated Contributor

Senior Account Executive

Inbound = Usually, the prospect initiates the first “buying sign” either through viewing specific product content, attending an event or requesting a contact. Quality of the lead can vary, quite widely, and consistency cannot be relied on to maintain healthy pipeline. Maybe it’s “less work” for sales, but it all needs to be qualified the same as Outbound.

Outbound = The sales team (AE, BDR, Channel, Etc) is reaching out to generate or discover interest that has not previously been made known, either intentionally or unintentionally. A qualified outbound lead is generally more reliable because the first contact, while not initiated by the customer, is validated immediately as true interest or not...usually. Downside is that it’s more grunt work for sales. But it’s a 100% necessary part of any GTM and the bread and butter of a successful sales org.

There’s nuance and variance within both of those descriptions but at face value, I rely and focus more on qualified outbound leads.

Chep

WR Officer

Bitcoin Adoption Specialist

Never thought about it like that, but very true. Inbounds can be wish-washy while an outbound (if you can get them to commit) will be ready to move forward

Coffeesforclosers

Notable Contributor

Director Sales and Market Development

2 totally different things.
Inbound- hand raise, call on it fast cause they didnt only reach out to you and as ricky bobby said if you aint first youre last. Get on their radar quick or your dead
Outbound- you create the interest far less competition

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

Inbounds are warmer, therefore they get a higher priority/more attention. That's probably the major difference, for me.

MS1

Praised Answer

Strategic Account Executive

Funny that most people focus so much on Outbound and always talk about how its the priority, but I always felt that the best reps should be put on Inbound leads since they are so much more likely to close, whereas newer reps should work on the outbound side of things to start out with. Just my opinion though.

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

I agree with that.

matthewmorris490

BDR

If an inbound comes in, no matter the time of day, I get up and reach out to them. They reached out for a reach and are probably already showing that they are already working on a project, and probably have the power of the decision maker as well.

Chep

WR Officer

Bitcoin Adoption Specialist

Great point

skeez

I would say depends on how you score/allow personas to score up with whether or not they "have the power of the decision maker"
hate for you to be getting up for an intern....

curd

Opinionated

Inbound requires less work but tend to be more competitive and people often come in with requirements that you can’t meet.

With outbound you tend to create the requirements and there’s less competition. Also as others have said; if someone takes multiple outbound meetings with you then you have a much higher chance of closing that over an inbound.

SlinginSoftware

Politicker

Account Executive

I don't know if it's just my perception or not, but here's what I've found:

-Inbound leads buy early and often with a lower contract value.
-Outbound buys less frequently, but usually a MUCH larger contract.

Anyone else have this experience?

For that reason, I'm usually much more strategic with leads prospect in to

GRIFFindor

Opinionated

Sales Nerd

Similar when you break it down to motivators. Difference is how far along in their buying cycle they might be. Inbound = raised hand likely because of curiosity.
Outbound = I'm curious enough to take a meeting.
Messaging and tactics are similar plays towards human psychology.
Outbound you're trying to figure out what piqued their curiosity to take the meeting and try to build on that.
Inbound you're trying to figure out what piqued their curiosity to raise their hand and then again you try to build on it. Find out where they're at in their evaluation/buying process.

ThatNewAE

Big Shot

Account Executive - Mid enterprise

The messaging / discovery needs to be really different. If you treat inbound and outbound leads the same, you'll lose the outbound ones through cracks.

- When you go to a house randomly and ask them questions like "How are you cleaning pests right now? - How often do you do pest cleaning?" straight up, they might not know what's up. So you set the context first, what you do and why you are at their doorstep. then you go ahead and ask questions that will uncover problem.

- When a family comes to you with a pest problem - you don't have to really start by telling what you do, why pest control is important and all. They have a problem already, they know you hence they came to you. Now you just uncover the problem a little more and place solutions.

That's how you have to treat outbound leads VS inbound. By setting the context first.

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Chep

How Do You Treat Inbound Vs Outbound Leads

I treat inbounds and outbounds the same

13 comments

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