Inbound Selling How to Change the Way You Sell to Match How People Buy

Change the way you think about sales to sell more, and sell better.

Over the past decade, Inbound Marketing has changed the way companies earn buyers’ trust and build their brands – through meaningful, helpful content.  But with that change comes unprecedented access to information in a few quick keystrokes. Enter the age of the empowered buyer, one who no longer has to rely on a sales rep to research their challenges or learn more about how a company’s offering might fit their needs.  Now, with more than  60% of purchasing decisions made in the absence of a sales rep, the role of the rep itself has been called into question.

With no end in sight to this trend, sales professionals and the managers who lead them must transform both the way they think about selling and how they go about executing their sales playbook. Expert author and HubSpot Sales Director, Brian Signorelli has viewed the sales paradigm shift from the inside—his unique insights perfectly describe the steps sales professionals must take to meet the needs of the empowered customer. In this book, readers will learn:

• How inbound sales grew out of inbound marketing concepts and practices
• A step-by-step approach for sales professionals to become inbound sellers
• What it really means to be a frontline sales manager who leads a team of inbound sellers
• The role executive leadership plays in affecting an inbound sales transformation 

For front-line seller, sales manager, executives, and other sales professionals, Inbound Selling is the complete resource to help your business thrive in the age of the empowered buyer.

BRIAN SIGNORELLI is the director of HubSpot's Global Sales Partner Program, where he advises HubSpot partners on inbound sales and inbound marketing to grow their client's companies, as well as their own. He regularly writes, develops, and presents inbound sales content for HubSpot and its channel partners. He is also the founder of InboundSeller.com, where you can find tools and resources to become an inbound seller and transform any sales department into an inbound powerhouse.

Acknowledgments xi

Foreword xiii

On the History of Sales through the Salesperson’s Eyes, by Dan Tyre xiii

On the Current State of Sales and What the Decades Ahead May Hold, by Mark Roberge xviii

Preface xxiii

Introduction xxv

An Interview with Brian Halligan xxvi

Part 1 The “Why?” Behind Inbound Sales

Chapter 1 I Was Never Supposed to Be in Sales 3

Chapter 2 Why Inbound Sales Matters 23

Part 2 How to be an Inbound Seller: A Playbook for the Front-Line Sales Rep

Chapter 3 Identify: How to Identify the Right People and Businesses to Pursue 37

Chapter 4 Connect: How to Engage Active—and Not So Active—Buyers 63

Chapter 5 Explore: How to Properly Explore a Buyer’s Goals and Challenges 75

Chapter 6 Advise: How to Advise a Buyer on Whether or Not Your Solution Addresses Their Needs 91

Chapter 7 Closing and Negotiating 109

Part 3 How to Lead Inbound Sellers: Reflections for the Front-Line Sales Manager

Chapter 8 The First-Time Sales Rep–to-Manager Survival Guide 125

Chapter 9 Reflections on Sales Leadership 147

Part 4 What Inbound Selling Means Across the Executive Suite

Chapter 10 Sales Is a Team Sport: The Executives’ Guide to Transforming into an Inbound Sales Organization 177

Part 5 The Future of Sales and the Sales Profession

Chapter 11 The Future of Sales: An Epilogue 215

by Derek Wyszynski, board advisor at SalesTribe and CEO of RealSalesAdvice

Notes 233

Index 239

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