Increase Sales: Step-up To The Plate Like Babe Ruth

Babe Ruth is best known for his home runs. He hit it out of the park 714 times. However, the powerful hitter is less known for the way he transformed the game of baseball. Before he came on the scene, baseball consisted of low-scoring strategies where the home run was barely considered important. Once players began focusing on home runs, it transformed the game. It drew crowds.

Switching from outbound (push) marketing to inbound marketing will do the same thing for your sales results as Babe Ruth’s home runs did for baseball in the 1920s. It will increase your sales success. So let’s step up to the plate like Babe Ruth and begin using inbound marketing strategies to increase your sales.

Pick up the bat.

If you’re going to connect with the ball (the sale) you need to pick up the bat. In inbound marketing this is content. Social media content, video content, website content. It’s content with a customer-centric viewpoint. It’s audio, visual and print’ materials—each shaped to attract the customer you want to work with.

Your bat will be shaped by demographics, business sector, etc. Its fibers will be carefully honed to give a clear message—one bringing the needs of your customer together with the solution you offer. Its final forms must focus on giving away something that’s valued by your prospect.

Eye the pitcher.

Prepare for the pitch. Position yourself at the plate. Have a plan in place to bring each contact into your sales funnel. Just as Babe invited the pitcher to send the ball his way with a few relaxed swings of the bat, warm your visitor up to the idea that sharing contact information is worth the risk by creating an irresistible call to action.

Connect with the ball.

How far the ball goes depends upon the connection it makes with the bat. If that connection is solid, you may have a home run from first contact. Sometimes, you’ll have a ball that looks like it’s going to be good, and it goes foul.’ Fortunately, with inbound marketing there’s no three strikes you’re out rule. There’s only the lead nurturing’ rule.

If you guide your prospects into an email nurturing campaign from the moment you capture their contact information, you’ll be able to bat in many customers who only made it to first base with the first call to action.

Imagine that the relationship you develop with your potential sales prospects is like a ball that’s still airborne. The crowd and the players in the field have to watch where it’s going. You’re like the wind. You have some power over the ball’s speed and trajectory. You can guide it to its destination—the outfield where the sale takes place—if you qualify and nurture your leads.

Catch the home run.

Set up your lead nurturing campaign to reflect any shift from buyer information gathering to decision-making. For example, interest in a video that explains how your process works could indicate a move toward choosing between options. So viewing that video should send out a flag to your sales team. If you’re using a certain team member as the point of contact via your lead nurturing emails, then set things up so that person is in place to catch the ball.

Another potential buying signal could be a click through to pricing information. This suggests you could catch the sale if you make contact, especially if the click didn’t lead to a decision.

As Matthew Cook of SalesHub says, “Inbound marketing makes the transition from stranger to customer a lot easier and more rewarding for the customer. By developing a strong inbound marketing strategy you will attract more, better customers and increase sales.[1]

Are you ready to step up to the plate like Babe Ruth? You don’t have to be anywhere near as famous. You don’t have to be 6 ft. 2 in. tall. All you need to hit the ball out of the park, and sell more than ever before, is to learn how to use inbound marketing strategies effectively. See how Wallboard Supply Company crushed the ball by developing a new website and introduced inbound marketing tactics to drive a huge increase in website visits. Download the case study below.

[1] http://www.saleshub.ca/blog/bid/350479/How-Inbound-Marketing-Can-Increase-Your-Sales