subject: Sales Leads - Inbound Vs. Inbound [print this page] While most ambitious MLM owners and home business owners track each and every detail of their marketing effort and its effectiveness, many fail to consider the importance of inbound versus outbound sales leads analysis. Since a recent study showed that outbound sales leads cost almost twice as much to generate each sale as inbound sales leads it is essential that the astute owner understand the relationship between these two. Often an investment in CRM (customer relationship management) software will go a long way towards understanding how effective both your inbound and outbound sales leads are at generating sales.
The first piece of analysis that the MLM owner or home business owner should undertake is discovering what common factors old customers have in common. CRM software can help you sort by factors such as sex, age, income bracket, and geographic location. By finding out the specific criteria that led to the majority of sales you can then add a filter to any sales leads you may generate in the future to focus as intensely as possible on only the target audience most likely to become customers. Adding this filter will save your sales team much frustration and wasted time and make them more productive overall.
Once this information is culled from your sales data the sales force can begin to focus on ways to increase sales percentage to both inbound and outbound sales calls. Inbound sales leads are obviously the lowest hanging fruit, as the potential customer has already expressed some level of interest just by calling or e-mailing your business. Inbound sales leads are generated in a variety of methods, both traditional and through the use of technology. Methods such as mass mailings through the USPS are a tried and true technique that still works today. Electronic mediums such as e-mail blasts and websites have exploded in popularity as marketing tools to generate sales leads in recent years as well.
Outbound sales leads are certainly the more challenging of the two and require a strong and dedicated sales team to translate into sales. Often outbound sales leads consist of telemarketing and cold calls to persons on a generalized list that includes people who may or not be interested at all in your service. This technique has an extremely low success rate and be quite expensive on a per-sale basis when the full cost data is extrapolated. Purchasing and fully utilizing CRM software can show the MLM owner or home business owner this information in detail and help them hone their marketing skills for the future.
