It’s the great debate. Should you be investing in a greater inbound lead generation strategy or stick with the trusty outbound approach? We look at which one costs more and which one drives more sales.
Outbound lead generation methods
Ok, we already know that old school outbound sales work. You can choose your own customers, making outbound lead gen predictable and scalable. You can construct a business plan that works and produces results. With more customers expecting businesses to make all the effort in the sales process for them, outbound still stands on solid ground.
But, there are a few things that make outbound salespeople the most hated of all professionals. Namely, when they cold call us or interrupt our business day. For outbound sales to successfully continue, our sales teams will need the tools to make sure their cold calls don’t sound like cold calls.
What inbound lead gen does differently
Inbound, on the other hand, keeps working and generating leads even when your sales team has gone home for the day. It may take longer to see the results, but the chances of closing more leads increases significantly.
Inbound lead generation is moving from strength to strength thanks to content marketing. So with a combined marketing and product development plan, inbound can deliver 54% more leads to your sales funnel. According to research from the Content Marketing Institute, 85 percent of B2B marketers say lead generation is a top priority, yet 44 percent of those rate their overall marketing efforts as “neutral” – which means they are somewhere in between very effective and not effective at all.
Which lead gen method should you use?
The answer is both. Most businesses currently take an 80/20 split that favours outbound lead generation. However, with buyers becoming more informed, that split will switch. Inbound sales will become more influential every day. That’s why it will be better to specialise in inbound sales sooner than you think.