How to Create the Perfect Sales Strategy

Inbound vs. outbound sales strategy

Before you get started with a sales strategy of your own (whether it is online digital marketing, local marketing, or with the use of an email marketing strategy), it is important to familiarize yourself with the difference between both inbound and outbound sales strategies.

In marketing, inbound and outbound strategies (or inside and outside strategies) help to define the methods they will be used in order to appeal to and connect with a particular audience.

Inbound sales strategies

Inbound sales strategies typically require the prospective customer to interact or engage with a company or brand first.

Inbound strategies are typically crafted for newsletter subscribers, webinar guests, and even those who have recently purchased or downloaded an eBook from a company's website.

Inbound sales strategies rely heavily on existing users and target demographics along with those who are already aware of a business or brand's existence. Some of the features of inbound sales strategies might include:

• Awareness on the side of customers and prospects (ie: they are aware of your company's existence and/or the products and services you offer)
• An inbound sales strategy may rely on emails submitted directly to your customer.
• Prospective customers may have attended a conference, webinar, consultation, or they may have submitted their contact information to your business.
• Prospective customers and/or clients have a vested interest in the type of products and/or services you offer.

Outbound sales strategies

In contrast to inbound sales strategies, outbound sales strategies are largely launched internally by companies with sales teams and a dedicated marketing team.

Outbound sales strategies do not require any initiation from the side of the customer in order to succeed. With outbound sales strategies, leads are not often as aware of the existence of a business or brand, which can go either way depending on the sales strategy plan you deploy. Some features of a typical outbound sales strategy might include:

• Less engaged and/or aware users (prospective customers may be unaware of your business or brand when they are first introduced to it).
• Cold calling and cold emailing/texting are common methods that are deployed with outbound sales strategies.
• Sales teams have an opportunity to cold-call prospective customers directly in hopes of selling a service or product to a customer.

The 4 types of selling every sales team should know

Whenever you want to improve your small business marketing strategies, you will need to brush up on the 4 most popular types of selling.

Whether you are new to selling products or services or if you are looking for some of the best customer retention strategies, it is imperative to have a complete understanding of the basic types of selling that are most commonly seen today.

Transactional

Whenever a company is strictly selling products they have created directly to a customer, they often do so with a transactional sale.

Transactional sales are typically product-oriented and often include short-term goals. Transactional sales do not rely on long-term business or commitment from existing customers and work best for quick marketing campaigns and quick sales tactics.

Relationship

Developing a relationship with a company client is another way to work on a sales strategy. A relationship-driven sale will surround a client's individual needs as well as what your company has to offer.

Building a relationship is best for partners, sponsors, and those who intend to work together and alongside one another long-term.

Partnership

A partnership transaction is similar to a relationship transaction, only it often requires contractual agreements. Business agreements help to provide legal protection for all parties involved in an ongoing partnership. With a partnership, one company may provide products and services in exchange for a service that the partner has to offer or for a fee.

Solutions

Solution selling is quickly becoming a popular method of launching a marketing campaign today. Solution selling is customer-oriented and works to deliver individualized solutions directly to consumers. With solution selling strategies, the ultimate goal is to attract long-term loyal customers and repeat business.

Create a sales strategy in 7 steps

Developing a sales strategy is not always as simple as listing a product online or in a local store and hoping for the best.

In order to begin generating sales and revenue, you will need to bring awareness to your brand and business itself. To do so, complete the following steps to get started on your own unique sales strategy:

Find your target audience

Before you can launch a successful sales strategy, you will first need to find and define your target audience. What audience do you intend to reach? Are you targeting specific demographics (ie: sex, location, skills, and interests), or are you trying to broaden your reach, both online and off? Defining your target audience is essential for any type of sales strategy you intend to build and integrate.

Generate leads

Generating leads for your sales team is not always as simple as sharing an update to your website's official blog. In order to drive leads and potential sales to your store (locally and/or online), you will need to get creative based on the audience you want to reach. Some ways to consider generating leads might include:

• Launch an online contest or giveaway with your website and social media.
• Immerse yourself in your own online community of followers and fans. Ask questions, respond to inquiries, and be as transparent as possible on social media and on your own website. Establishing your brand as transparent is key to building trust among prospective and existing customers, which in turn can result in more sales and revenue generation.
• Rework your content strategy to appeal to a wider audience with more useful and interesting information.
• Put social media to work for you. Market on social media to gain traction, boost SEO for your company, and garner a following over time.
• Create and launch a newsletter that users can subscribe to, allowing you to collect names and other information, such as email addresses.

Create targeted ads

Once you have a complete understanding of the audience you want to reach, you can begin crafting targeted ads.

Targeted ads can be launched with the use of third-party platforms such as Google AdWords and Facebook Ads, along with alternative social media platform solutions. Target specific users based on the demographics you intend to reach to prevent overspending when it comes to your current campaign budget.

Use A/B testing

A/B testing provides an opportunity to launch similar campaigns with small but noticeable tweaks. For example, you may launch one campaign with the same logo but a different headline to determine which ad campaign has the biggest effect on its intended audience.

A/B testing is one of the most useful tools for any market or industry campaign, whether you want to appeal to middle-aged schoolteachers or high-tech programmers.

Content is still king

It is important to pivot your marketing strategy at all times, exploring a wide range of marketing channels and opportunities. One channel that is not going away any time soon is Content.

When it comes to building a successful empire, content is still king in many industries, even today. Launching a content marketing strategy that genuinely resonates with your target audience can have a significant impact on your brand's visibility and overall popularity, pushing people into your sales pipeline.

Explore multiple marketing channels

One of the biggest ways to break into the world of sales is to explore omnichannel marketing. With the growth of the internet, smartphone use, and social media, omnichannel marketing has become increasingly popular, even among local businesses and old-school mom-and-pop stores.

Omnichannel marketing provides the opportunity to use more than one channel, platform, or application to promote a business or brand. Using omnichannel marketing is ideal if you want to promote your eCommerce store online, locally, via email, and even with the use of mobile smartphone SMS text messaging campaigns.

The opportunities are virtually endless once you are familiar with all of the marketing channels and platforms that are available to use today.

Keep your customers coming back

Whether you work in business-to-business marketing or if you are looking to cultivate a B2C (business-to-customer) relationship, you always want to keep your existing customers coming back for more.

With the right marketing strategy, voice, and on-point brand messaging, you will keep customers coming back for more while also building loyalty among those who purchase from you.

The right sales strategy plan can mean the difference between falling short of expectations and achieving greater success than you could have imagined. With the right sales strategy, appeal to your target audience while simultaneously establishing your business and brand as reputable and trustworthy.

To get started with your next marketing campaign with the right sales strategy, turn to Mailchimp. Mailchimp makes it easier than ever to seamlessly integrate winning marketing strategies that are sure to boost SEO while ultimately resulting in more sales or revenue generation.