Many may know me for "inbound sales and marketing". After all, I was among the first 100 or so HubSpot marketing agencies almost a decade ago. I've been to every single Inbound conference- (even before it was called "Inbound") and spoken at the last 3- this year will be my 4th visit as a speaker.
But what you may not know is that one of the reasons I made the transition to the dark side of sales is that I learned that "Inbound" by itself, is not enough to grow a business. That's why I made the transition to Unbound Growth.
So this "inbounder" crashed the party at OutBound Conference in Atlanta. Because it's not about one thing versus the other. It's about doing whatever it takes (ethically) to reach those that you can help the most.
Here is what stuck with me, as recorded live from the OutBound Conference!
Highlight #1: Your sales pipeline is life
In the first couple of hours of the event, there were a ton of takeaways! It started off with Jeb Blount talking about how the pipeline is life for a salesperson. That the biggest reason that salespeople fail, an empty pipeline. If you have a deal in your pipeline and it hasn't advanced, it's time to kick it out.
Consistent prospecting is what fills that pipeline. And as I like to say, "A full pipeline solves all perspectives." You're not desperate for the next deal, and the one that you want to close the most, is the one that's least likely to close.
I also really love what Mike Weinberg had to say; inbound and social is just not enough. We need to stop living in reactive mode, we need to focus on who our best target accounts are and stop being late to the party. Get out there and engage those people that you know that you can help.
Highlight #2: Prospecting is having one-to-one conversations with your ideal buyer
After hearing from Anthony Iannarino and Mark Hunter, I left with a few takeaways.
First, from Anthony is we are selling change, are we adding the kind of value that our buyers would be willing to pay to have a meeting with us? Then Mark really dived into what prospecting isn't.
Prospecting is not sending that mass email.
Prospecting is not networking.
Prospecting is not posting things on LinkedIn.
Prospecting is having one-to-one conversations with your ideal buyer. That's key to understand because we can allude to ourselves that all of these things we're doing is going to lead to prospecting, but really remembering that it comes down to those conversations that we're having.
How much do you care?
After outbound was over, it left me with this nagging question: how much do you care? How much do you care about the problem that you're solving and the person who you're solving it for? Because if you believe as I believe, that salespeople are the connection between a problem and a solution, and that that means we can make the world a better place.
Doesn't that also mean that it's your responsibility to find the people who have the problems that you can help to solve?
And so rather than waiting around for people to come to you and ask you for help, isn't the right thing to do to really proactively go after those people because you care, to help them solve their problems?
That's my main takeaway after Outbound- it comes down to how much do you care?
If you were at Outbound, share your biggest takeaways below.
