If you've been involved in sales or marketing for a while, you might have heard people throwing the terms 'inbound sales' and 'outbound sales'.

Let's discuss what these terms mean.

In short, inbound selling or marketing involves attracting customers with useful, problem-solving content instead of going for the sale right from the beginning to audiences who may not even have the problem! This content can includes things like blogs, social media posts, and infographics.. Essentially, inbound selling means you give - before you ask.

On the other hand, outbound sales is a more traditional approach, which involves businesses approaching leads through advertising or in-person contact.

One of the key practices in outbound selling is cold-calling. You call a person out of the blue and try to sell them something. 

It's not always a pleasant experience - for both the salesperson and the person being sold to. That's if you can get hold of them in the first place. 

The rise of the Internet and detailed caller ID has lead to customers being much more savvy than they used to be, reducing the effectiveness of the cold-call.

Not that cold-calling doesn't have a niche anymore - but its reliability and effectiveness has dwindled.

You need to be aware of the new changes in the sales landscape and consider alternative approaches to selling. 

(Download our top three sales tips direct from the experts to improve the performance of your sales team.)

What do your leads prefer - Inbound or Outbound?

Your customers think about themselves first - we all do. They don't care about your sales targets or KPIs.

This means that you need to sell them the way they want to get sold to. Respect their buying journey and stay relevant.

Having said that, let's take a look at the stats.

By 2020, customers will manage 85% of their relationship with a business without talking to a human being.

This clearly means that the majority of customers don't like getting interrupted and want to make an independent purchase decision.

Also, buyers wait until they have completed 60-80% of their research before reaching out to vendors.

That's why you should have heaps of helpful content that addresses the customers' problems on your website. 

Keeping the statistical evidence in mind, Inbound wins! 

Read more about How to use inbound marketing to get more 'qualified' leads?

(Download our top three sales tips direct from the experts to improve the performance of your sales team.)