When putting together proper outbound prospecting plans it can be a little daunting trying to drum up leads at the same rate of inbound leads coming in. When inbound leads come in, they are further down the funnel, already in a buying stage, and have legit interest in exploring the products.
When executing your outbound campaign, it can take a while to engage with these prospects and move them through the funnel as “warm to hot” leads that are ready to have meetings or start the process of moving forward. With some proper planning and execution, there are some simple ways you can beat inbound and create leads on your own at a fast pace as seen below.
Finding the Decision Maker
The number one way to beat inbound is to find and engage with the main decision maker or influencer. Having people that are not prime targets or decision makers on your email list or database will do nothing to build value or add to your pipeline. The best and most effective way to find the right decision maker is by referrals.
Engaging with people in that particular group and asking “who would be the best person to contact” regarding the solution you are selling would be an easy and effective way to work your way inside the organization while getting a referral introduction. People will always be willing to help if you are providing solid value to there company.
Try and get the introduction or worst case scenario when you reach out to the decision maker, mention that your contact told you to reach out. This way your engagement will be much warmer and lead to a higher conversion process for future discovery calls or meetings.
Engage Before There is a Need
What if 10 inbound leads came in and you had already been prospecting those 10 leads before they filled out the company lead form? They would be reaching out to you instead of filling out the company lead form where it would possibly go to another sales rep. The number one way to beat inbound is find the right decision makers and engage them before there is a need.
What if you found all the decision makers for all the key target accounts in your territory and had those decision makers in your email nurturing database? By effectively doing this, you can have outbound contributing to possibly more than 50% of your pipeline.
When you engage prospects before there is a need, provide value along the way, and build some solid trust, you will be the first person that comes to mind when there is an immediate need. They will reach out to you and only you, whom they trust when it comes to the particular solutions they are seeking.
Going through this process takes a lot of organizational skills, discipline, and patience. Engaging before there is a need and moving the prospect through the funnel and closing the deal can be a long drawn out process. But when done right, you won’t have to wait for inbound leads to come streaming through or keep cold calling/cold emailing prospects and getting no response or interest because they are the wrong target.
Inbound leads are great and very helpful to all salespeople, but having other lead generation processes to go along with inbound can greatly increase your pipeline and your income!
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