How does an inbound sales system work

Illustration of a professional considering inbound sales systems

The old sales playbooks aren’t as effective as they once were.

Potential buyers have more access to information now than ever before. Now, buyers can scan social media for peer preferences, analyze review sites and forms, and read content from bloggers and companies alike.

The inbound sales methodology reflects this change in consumer behavior, and to sell the way that consumers want to buy.

Learn about inbound sales systems:

What is an inbound sales system?
6 benefits of an inbound sales system
How to implement an inbound sales system

An inbound sales system is a modern approach to selling that contrasts sharply with traditional outbound methods.

Instead of sales leaders “pushing” products and services to potential customers, an inbound strategy “pulls” prospects in with content and education and waits for prospects to show interest. At its core, this system revolves around the notion that today’s well-informed consumers prefer to approach businesses when they're ready.

The inbound sales methodology is centered around the idea of the customer journey, typically mapped out in three phases: awareness, consideration, and decision.

The goal is to guide prospects from awareness to purchase.

To facilitate this, companies produce and share valuable content like posts, Linkedin Live events, videos, and carousels that addresses the problems and interests of their target audience.

When potential customers seek out this information, they engage with the brand on their terms.

Business development reps then leverage this engagement, using insights to tailor their sales pitches to the individual needs and interests of each potential customer.

Content that attracts target customers
A tightly aligned marketing and sales process
Lead tracking, nurturing, and follow up

To implement an inbound sales system from scratch, follow these steps:

1. Identify the ideal customer profile

The first step to implementing an inbound sales system is to identify the ideal customer profile. Some use the term “buyer persona” or “customer persona,” but at its core, this means determining the types of customers who are most likely to benefit from a business’s products or services, as well as those who are most likely to engage with the business.

One way to do this is to use LinkedIn Sales navigator to identify key contacts within a target account and schedule discovery calls. What are their pain points and needs? How do they use their current solution? What do they find attractive about what they’re currently using?

After collecting this information, create a customer persona that includes their demographics, needs, and preferences.

For businesses without this data, it’s best to make educated guesses based on the market, industry, product, and price point.

Ideal customer profiles and personas are evolving documents that should iterate and become clearer with increased effort and data.

2. Develop a content strategy

After developing an ideal customer profile, the next step is to develop a content strategy that will capture the attention, interest, and desire of these customers.

This includes creating blog posts, videos, social media posts, and other types of content that are tailored to the customer persona.

Where this content is created will depend on the individual business and their personas. For example, many B2B brands will find leverage creating content on LinkedIn (with the additional benefit of sales alignment using LinkedIn Sales Solutions).

The content the business creates should be useful, relevant, and engaging, and should provide prospects with valuable information that helps them solve a problem or meet a need. It’s also helpful to think about content creation that aligns with the customer journey.

This is where eventual prospects become aware of the business, usually through introductory content that appeals to a pain point or problem they are phasing. At this stage, the prospect is usually unaware of the solution landscape, but they are learning about how to solve their specific problem.

The next stage is the middle of the funnel, or the consideration stage. This is where the prospect becomes aware of several potential solutions to their problem, and where the business can present its unique selling proposition as a potential solution.

Finally, the bottom of the funnel is the decision stage, where the prospect eventually chooses which solution to follow through with.

Creating content for every stage of the customer journey also allows sales reps to have much better data and understanding of prospects when it comes to the sales handoff.

Overall, developing a strong content strategy can position the business and its employees as thought leaders in the industry, which can create “top of mind awareness,” enabling prospects to reach out when it’s the right time to buy.

3. Define a sales process

The most important component of inbound sales is building a system to collect, manage, qualify, and nurture inbound leads.

Inbound marketing and inbound sales are innately connected.

Creating content for the target audience attracts prospects at various stages of the funnel, and there’s typically a point at which marketing hands off leads to sales. This handoff is usually referred to as a “sales qualified lead.”

Sales qualified leads are determined by the fit of the lead as well as their behavioral indicators of interest. How a business defines a sales qualified lead varies, but the important thing is that this step is defined and documented as part of a sales process.

A documented sales process helps businesses determine when and where a marketing lead becomes a sales lead, and how to leverage the data that marketing teams have collected in order to nurture and close the lead.

4. Use technology to streamline the sales process

Inbound sales can be intricate, with numerous moving pieces to track and manage. Leveraging the right technology is essential for streamlining the sales process, improving lead management, and enhancing efficiency across your team.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a leading tool for sales teams looking to optimize their inbound sales strategy. Sales Navigator taps into LinkedIn's vast database of professionals and businesses, providing rich, real-time data for better lead generation, qualification, and outreach.

Advanced Search and Lead Recommendations: Sales Navigator offers powerful filters to help identify ideal prospects based on criteria such as industry, job title, location, and company size. Additionally, its AI-driven recommendations suggest leads that align with your sales goals, helping you discover high-potential opportunities you may have overlooked.

CRM Integration: Sales Navigator seamlessly integrates with major CRMs, allowing sales teams to enrich their existing contact database with LinkedIn insights, such as recent activities, mutual connections, and shared interests. This integration ensures your CRM stays updated with dynamic, actionable data.

Real-Time Sales Insights: With features like "Lead Updates" and "Account Insights," users are notified of changes such as job moves, company expansions, or new posts from prospects. This intelligence enables timely, personalized outreach that resonates with potential customers.

5. Establish a lead nurturing process

Even the best inbound sales system won't generate results overnight.

That's why it's important to establish a lead nurturing process that can help businesses stay top-of-mind with prospects after initially attracting them through content.

A lead nurturing process typically involves a series of automated emails that provide prospects with useful information and encourage them to take additional action, such as signing up for webinars, attending events, or consuming additional content.

6. Measure, analyze, and optimize results

As with any sales strategy, it's important to measure and analyze results on an ongoing basis.

Some of the key metrics to track include website traffic segmented by channel source, lead quality and quantity, sales pipeline velocity, and customer lifetime value.

Measuring both leading and lagging indicators can help drive marketing and sales alignment by determining which parts of the funnel need the most improvement.

For example, if an inbound marketing program is driving a lot of traffic and leads, but very little qualified pipeline, it’s likely that the targeting needs to be refined to better match the business’s ideal customer profile.

Conversely, if a program is driving very little traffic and leads, but all of the leads are highly qualified and closed quickly, then the marketing program can expand its efforts by testing new channels or doubling down on existing content creation efforts.

Whatever the case, measurement is important because it can drive insights and improvement over time. Inbound sales is not a static effort, but rather an evolving and iterative process that benefits from data, feedback, and continuous optimization.

Implementing an inbound sales system can be challenging, but it's worth the effort in the long run.

By following these six steps, business leaders can create a sales process that attracts high-quality leads, builds trust with prospects, and ultimately drives revenue and continuous inbound lead growth for the business.

Consider LinkedIn Sales Navigator for an inbound sales system to search for, connect with, and understand customers. Get real-time alerts on key customer accounts, map out stakeholders, and unlock buyer intent to nurture and qualify the best leads.

What is an inbound sales system?