The whole world is Inbound

except when you're outbound.

Huh?

Have you ever told a prospect, "I'll call you next week to see what you've decided."? Isn't that outbound?

Have you ever used this email template after someone filled out a form and downloaded some content?

"Hi. Thanks for filling out our form and downloading our content. A lot of people that downloaded that content also found value with X and Y. So, I've included links to those for you." Isn't that outbound? Aren't you sending them something that they didn't ask for? Aren't you insinuating that you know what they want better than they know what they want?

Have you ever had someone mis-read your email? I did last week. How did I know that they mis-read the email? Because their reply didn't make sense. I replied with "?". That's it. Just a question mark. They replied to my "?" with a totally inappropriate response and offer, to which I replied, "I'll pass." They replied with some compliments and "I am sorry but I am not sure what I did to get a response ultimately of "I'll pass"." That led to a short email exchange and now we are exactly on the same page.

Why didn't I explain that their reply didn't make sense and they must have mis-read my email? I didn't want to insult them. Do you like to be told that you can't read? Plus, isn't that outbound? It's me telling them that they're wrong and that they need to listen to me.

Wasn't the "I'll pass." a trick or a sales move? No. They made an offer and I wasn't interested. It was the transparent truth. Why didn't I explain the misunderstanding? I didn't know that they wanted an explanation.

So, how do you inbound like @RainMakerMaker?

Don't, offer unless they ask.

Stop thinking that what you think matters.

Let your prospect drive the process.

Here's the issue. You may switch to outbound because you have happy ears, because you're defensive, because you're in uncharted territory. You may switch to outbound when you're trying to schedule a call, when you're trying to uncover pain (stop that), uncover the budget, get to the decision maker, or a dozen other spots in your process. As soon as you do, your prospect sees that you are trying to take control of their process and you get resistance and you've lost control in a split second.

Here's the worst part. If you're a Hubspot Partner and you have any of these issues, you can't help your clients fix their issues.

If you want my help for you as well as your clients, you have until September 30th.