The Inbound Trap

Who doesn’t love a good inbound lead? They’re a sign that you’re doing something right. Your SEO is on point, there’s some thought leadership that sent people your way, or someone specifically passed you a referral. Hey, maybe it’s pure dumb luck! One way or another, people are coming to you. 

By and large, this is a good thing, and when it happens with regularity, it’s usually a sign of a healthy business. 

Salespeople love handling inbound leads. The prospect usually knows what they’re struggling with, they have an idea of how to solve their issue, and they’ve done a little bit of research on you and your competitors. 

You’ve made it through the first few rounds of cuts in your customer’s mind, and you can jump right into a good discovery conversation. There’s momentum working for you.

This is all positive.

Then you get caught in the trap

I see this happen to salespeople all the time. The trap is set when you tell yourself that since they came to you, and they’re reasonably well-informed, they’re ready to buy. You forecast this deal to close, and joke with yourself to try not to screw it up. 

These things close at a really high rate, right? It’s in the bag!

Except it’s not in the bag. The prospect says that they like what you’ve shown them and they need to discuss a few things. They’ll get back to you. 

Hey, they found me once, they like what they saw. I’m not going to be pushy, I just need to be patient.

The deal feels like it’s taking forever. Another month goes by with it stuck in your forecast. You haven’t heard back from your prospect yet. They still engage a little bit with your social media posts and give you no reason at all to believe things are falling apart. They’re interested.

You reach out to call, and they apologize for not getting back to you. They really like what you have to offer, but they’re going to need to put this process on hold for a bit.

This is not positive.

What did you miss?

You got caught on your heels and forgot that you had prospecting work to do. 

All the elements of the sale were in place except the most important one. You forgot to create more tension.

The emotional aspect of the sale is the easiest to overlook, yet it’s the one you can’t live without. When someone comes to you, giving you plenty of indication that they’re ready to buy, you’re inclined to believe them. Then you move from seller mode to order-taker mode, and that’s a dangerous place.

Not only have you not tapped into the emotions that will influence your buyer’s decision, you’ve also not given yourself any leverage to use when following up with them. 

When all you have to go on is, “Hey, um, did you make your decision yet?” It’s not exactly a strong position. 

When you fail to stimulate emotions in the sales process, you’re also largely avoiding the problem and focusing mainly on the product- another weak position.

I’ve caught myself in this position before. It’s a really easy trap to fall into, but there’s a pretty simple fix.

Create more tension earlier

The opportunity landed in your lap, and while that’s good, it kind of puts you in reactive mode right away. You don’t have quite as much control over the conversation as you would have if you had started it proactively. In that way, you’re shorthanded.

A key tenet of closing more deals more often means creating them with high levels of emotion right from the get-go. From this under-leveraged position, you need to remain focused, and not take those emotions for granted. Be diligent with your process, even retracing some of your own steps between calls to make sure you’re checking this box.

Do better discovery

Think about how hard you work in discovery when you’re not sure the prospect is already sold on your solution. You ask better questions. You pay closer attention to the answers. You dig deeper. You get a little more vulnerable.

When someone comes to you seemingly ready to buy, you let your own guard down, and this vital aspect of the sales process gets overlooked.

Don’t do that. Discipline yourself to be consistent and tenacious in your discovery calls. Be skeptical of inbound leads. Dig a little deeper into their desired outcomes. Quantify and underscore the true costs of indecision. 

When someone comes to you, it means they feel their issue is worth exploring, but not necessarily solving. You want to help them see that their issue is not only worth solving, but it’s also worth paying attention to it soon. 

Don’t get caught flat-footed. When you’re vigilant about discovery, your pipeline flows more consistently, you win bigger deals more often, and your customers actually end up more satisfied.