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What are your inbound sales questions?

Posted by Carole Mahoney on 7/15/15 1:00 PM

I was interviewed by John McTigue of Kuno Creative. In preparing for this interview, I realized that I have seen inbound disrupt a lot of industries, and it's not over yet. 

The way people ask questions, research, and buy has fundamentally changed with the Internet. (Call me Captain Obvious...) Marketing has changed with it... for the most part. Now the problem is that we have a lot of inbound leads, but not a lot of inbound salespeople.

So we decided to gather as many questions as we can fit into 60 minutes about inbound sales and have John ask the answers.

Here's what we had gathered:

  • Doesn't this (many leads, not enough customers) mean that there is something wrong with the targeting (product-market fit) or the definition of a lead?
  • Is it possible/practical to teach marketers to do inbound sales and vice versa?
  • What's the best way to mine the leads database to find good prospects for today, and how do you suggest reaching out to "cold" leads?
  • How do you determine which leads to followup with?
  • But what can be done with the top of the funnel leads to start building a relationship?
  • What are your thoughts on the use of dripped nurture campaigns for qualified prospects i.e. cadence, when to stop? 
  • What is the rhythm of inbound conversion? What is the right sequence of email/voice mails/social to use to get in touch with a prospect?
  • What's the biggest challenge facing sales reps as they transition to inbound sales?
  • How do you avoid sounding like every other sales rep when you send a "I saw you downloaded our ebook..." email or voice message?
  • Why don't people call you back when you leave voicemail messages?
  • What's the smart way to reach out to a prospect in social media, without appearing to be "salesy"? How can someone effectively work inbound leads if they don't use social media?
  • How important is thought leadership when it comes to inbound sales?
  • What are the most common mistakes that sales reps make with inbound leads?
  • How to get prospects asking you questions?
  • What is the best approach to closing your inbound leads?
  • What is the number one tactic to close the deal on that first follow up call after they've downloaded multiple resources for free?
  • As content and inbound marketing continue to build momentum, do you fear a "bubble" in the industry? And if so, when and how do we insulate against it?
  • How can we better leverage the marketing content we've worked so hard to produce into our sales efforts? What questions, can I ask our team to net out what they really are trying to do? I often find that there is a disconnect between what is asked for and what is actually needed? (marketing content/collateral)
  • Is converting Inbound leads a tactic or mindset?
Which ones do you really want us to answer? What question isn't listed here that should be? What's your take on the ones being asked?

Topics: inbound sales