We often speak to Automotive sales teams that want more ways to generate leads. They rely on cold calling and enquiries. One suggestion is to monitor what companies are visiting your website because those leads are active in their buying journey. Here’s how you can benefit from this potentially new lead source called Inbound companies. Read on to join the #SalesSuperleague.
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Let’s start with the basics - What is an Inbound Company? It’s a group of individuals who share the same domain who have been looking at and engaging with your website.
Why should you care about Inbound Companies as a source of sales leads?
For me, this information lets me know what sorts of companies are engaging with my website and often it can come as a surprise.
Sure, they may be looking because they discovered you by accident but more often than not it’s people who are interested in your company and have taken the time to find you.
I use the Prospects tool in HubSpot CRM and HubSpot Sales and it provides me with all the information I need to make an informed decision so I can tell if these people really did just stumble on the site or if they are looking for something in particular. I can look at this type of data to determine their probable level of interest:
- How many pages have they looked at?
- How many unique visitors from that company have been looking at us?
- When did they first and last visit the site?
Filtering out ‘noise’
Immediately you can start to filter the data to rank who is of most interest to you. I start by excluding all ISP’s and focus on domain names that are meaningful.
I then discount any companies that come from industries who I am not interested in.
Focusing on your ideal company
Remind yourself again who is your perfect buyer and what industries they typically work in. I also add a filter so it only shows me companies who are linked to my target industries.
Once you have completed these first couple of steps, you can order your search so that you can see who is REALLY engaging with your company.
- Who are your top 10 visitors?
- Over what period have they been looking at you?
- Which industries are the most engaged?
- Who’s the keenest of them all?
- How did these companies find us?
- Did they find me through a search engine or a direct search? Was it through LinkedIn or Social Media?
HubSpot can tell me all of this too.
So what do you do now - You still don’t know who the individuals are?
Go back to your buyer research: Once you have identified a company that is ideal, you need to find individuals who have your ideal buyer job title. I use LinkedIn using a keyword search to do this.
Remember to filter on region and prioritise by connection type - a first connection will always be a better quality potential lead than someone you have no link to at all.
Craft your initial outreach: Take your time to think about how you are going to approach them. Do you know them already? Maybe a call or direct message would work better than a cold approach.
If you don’t know them, also be explicit in why you are approaching them. I normally start with ‘Hi Roger, I’ve seen some of your colleagues have been looking at our website this week..’. Include a link that takes them to the content you want them to consume. Keep it brief and succinct.
And … wait: If you have targeted your perfect potential buyer, the odds are they will have an interest in your outreach and content.
The best case scenario is that they reply and it’s a great way to start a dialogue so you can develop the relationship. And I bet out of curiosity they clicked on that link even if it was not them looking at the website.
What I’ve also found is often they will refer you to a more suitable colleague. This is also a desirable outcome as a personal introduction is always preferable to a cold approach.
Be sure to make a habit of reviewing your inbound companies on a regular basis. Some companies may not look at your website for a sustained period, but then return months later. It’s a great indicator of renewed interest.
So spending time looking at your Inbound Companies can be enlightening and surprising. You can begin to see how your visitors are finding you, but most tellingly, how they are not.
To learn more about lead generation, start with How Automotive Companies Can Survive The Future.
You might also be interested in…
Our blog series for Automotive companies on Business Growth, How to use HubSpot, and Website design, our podcasts on iTunes and Soundcloud, and our videos on YouTube.
About The Tree Group
The Tree Group is a business growth agency and HubSpot Certified Partner that combines sales, marketing, and websites to help Automotive companies with at least 10 staff and a desire to grow by 15% in the next 18 months. Does that sound like you?
