Inbound Plus Outbound Equals Long-Term SaaS Success
Maybe inbound is generating enough leads to sustain your target ARR for now. But, have you thought about the long-term?
By Amy Ingraham on July 17, 2019
If you’re trying to scale up in the B2B SaaS market, outbound sales could be the key to unlocking expansion. Some of the most powerful software companies in the world, including inbound marketing-king Hubspot, have rapidly scaled up by creating seamless, personalized, and effective outbound plans.
This is part three of a series of five articles breaking down common problems seen in SaaS. Check out the post below to find out if your product needs outbound sales to come out on top.
There’s No Plan B After Inbound
We know inbound is in-style, and maybe it’s getting you just enough, or plenty, of leads to sustain revenue for now. But have you thought about the long-term?
The hard truth is that inbound isn’t in your direct control and almost always levels off. Both current and later-stage growth means having an actionable outbound plan that actively focuses on investigating and pursuing quality leads.
The hard truth is that inbound isn’t in your direct control and almost always levels off.
Google, Survey Monkey, and even non-sales Slack have all ended up supplementing inbound marketing with outbound. An “add-on” outbound team means just that, “add-on” revenue. Even a small crew can make a huge impact on gross sales.
Jason Lemkin, the founder of SaaStr, urges adding an outbound sales team as early as possible, stating simply “it always works.” Even if you have leads aplenty, Jason recommends prepping for the inbound plateau sooner than later. If you can master a high-functioning outbound process early on in your cycle, the additional revenue and branding support a quicker scale.
Inbound Lead Qualification
Another point where outbound comes into play is inbound lead qualification. You’ll need a dedicated team member to reach out quickly to inbound requests with appropriate qualifying questions.
Keep in mind that since the lead is already past the awareness stage, inbound qualification messaging should be different from outbound messaging. Your pitch should be tailored to the type of content downloaded and the lead’s professional profile.
Your pitch should be tailored to the type of content downloaded and the lead’s professional profile.
Freemium
Your sales development representatives will also have the essential revenue-incurring function of converting free users into paid. This will involve another round of qualification, making sure the user is adept to sign on to premium. Moreover, the messaging must be specific to the users’ current use and customized premium features of your product.
The Fix
All growth-focused companies will inevitably end up with an outbound team. A fully functioning squad can take a few months to become a well-oiled machine. However, the simplest place to start is dedicating just one internal role to the process.
Just one SDR can generate enough quality leads to stay in control of your scale. Get active with an outbound plan instead of depending on inbound income until it’s too late.
The Takeaway: Inbound is reacting, outbound is acting. It’s never too early to invest in outbound sales to stay ahead in the game.
