Just realized inbound vs outbound B2B sales is a totally different beast after 6 months at a new spot

I spent 3 years doing outbound cold calling at a SaaS company near Chicago and thought I had sales figured out. Then I switched to an inbound role at a manufacturing firm 5 months ago and the whole game flipped - people actually come to me with problems instead of me chasing them down. Does the quiet inbound life feel less effective to you guys too, or am I just not used to trusting the leads yet?

2 comments

2 Comments

fiona_kim8d ago

Man, people really overthink this stuff don't they? You went from cold calling to inbound and you're acting like you discovered a new planet or something. It's still sales either way, just different methods. Inbound is basically getting free cookies thrown at you because someone already knows they want cookies. Outbound is more like knocking on doors and asking if they want cookies when they didn't even know they were hungry. Neither one is some deep life changing beast, it's just about how much work you wanna put in upfront vs how much falls in your lap.

smith.parker7d ago

Free cookies thrown at you" is wild. Honestly the world of sales has changed so much in just the last 5 years, people really think inbound means no work. But tbh I've seen leads from a blog post that convert at 60% while a cold call might hit 2% on a good day. So yeah it's still sales but the ratios are so different it almost feels like a different job. Ngl your cookie analogy is spot on though.