8 Inbound Tips and Stratgies for Closing Deals

Use Sales Content to Tell Your Story

Far too often, “content” is a tool used primarily for marketing. While inbound marketing content is crucial, it’s not the whole picture. Sales content is just as vital to your brand’s success as anything else, and it can often be the linchpin to your entire inbound sales strategy.

Not only can sales content establish your industry expertise (by showcasing the insights and lessons you’ve learned over the years), but in doing so, it will help you become a trustworthy presence that your target audience will feel comfortable reaching out to. According to HubSpot, for example, a sales rep should endeavor to:

• Discover the customer’s needs
• Effectively communicate to the customer how specific products or service can provide an affordable and satisfactory solution to those customers’ needs

Sales content is about telling your story. It assumes the audience already knows your industry and focuses on educating them on why your brand is the one they’ve been looking for. It should build on the claims and insights your marketing team makes, but it should also act as a motivator that pushes a prospective consumer down the pipeline toward a purchase.

One of the best ways to do this is through testimonials. Testimonials can take several forms, though; they don’t have to live exclusively on a webpage. Try conducting a case study where you reach out to your customer base and ask if they’re willing to participate in a quick survey of your services. This won’t only give you excellent insights into your client delight (which should already be one of the KPIs you pay regular attention to), but it will also provide you with the data you need to put together a piece of content that dives deeper into your brand’s services and successes.

And as a lovely little bonus, sales content will also strengthen the relationship between your sales and marketing departments. These teams can become siloed off from each other, which is a shame, considering how much they rely on each other. By prioritizing brand-specific content tailored for the sales pipeline, you can bridge the gap between sales and marketing and discover firsthand how valuable regular cooperation can be to your brand.

Don’t Underestimate the Power of Automation

Your sales team has a lot of responsibilities to manage, which means anything you can do to lighten their workload will benefit your brand and its employees. This is why automation is such a versatile asset to your sales closing strategy.

One of the best ways to integrate automation into your sales closing strategy is by automating an email that goes to a rep whenever the same person visits or downloads several pieces of bottom of the funnel content.

For example, if someone is spending a decent amount of time on your pricing or product pages (or a case study that’s behind a contact form), you’re going to want to make sure your sales reps know about it. Like HubSpot says, this is when you need a workflow that will “trigger an internal email notification to your sales rep informing them of these high-value activities.” This will provide a rep with the information they need to follow-up with an SQL and continue to nurture them down the funnel.

Automation doesn’t have to stop there, either! Sales automation tools can take the form of an automated email campaign that regularly checks in with an SQL to keep them warm. They can also take the form of a chatbot that provides immediate customer service to visitors on your website while also assessing their sales-readiness. And to make a good thing even better, all of the data your email or chatbot gathers can be automatically sent to your CRM. When it’s time for a sales rep to step in, they’ll be more than equipped with the tools they need to close.

Do you still need convincing? Here are a few metrics that really drive home how valuable automation can be to your sales closing strategy:

• A sales automation CRM can increase sales up to 29%
• Having a CRM with automation capabilities can earn you $8.71 in profit for every dollar you invest in it
• Automated lead nurturing can improve sales rep productivity by almost 15%
• Over 40% of companies that implement marketing automation see positive ROI within six months
• Businesses that use automation to nurture prospects can experience a 451% increase in qualified leads

Focus on Helping, not Selling

You can have as many tools and sales closing strategies as possible, but if you don’t have the right mindset when approaching a prospect, they won’t do you much good. Inbound sales, like inbound marketing, should always come from a place of help. If you want to close more sales, then your first course of action should be to sit down and assess whether your inbound selling strategy makes helping a priority.

The goal should be to accommodate a prospect’s needs in such a satisfying way that, even if they don’t give you their business, their experience is so positive that they recommend you to others. Word of mouth is a powerful tool in its own right, especially since research shows that consumers historically trust recommendations from their peers more than any other form of advertising.

When it comes down to it, the best sales closing strategy is built around ensuring that, no matter what, every lead your brand interacts with can see that you genuinely want the best for them. That’s the inbound way, and when you commit to it, it’s only a matter of time before you start closing more sales.