In the highly competitive realm of commercial real estate (CRE), successful prospecting plays a pivotal role in driving growth and forging valuable partnerships. Knowing how to effectively prospect can keep you from wasting time and missing out on opportunities. For sales and business development reps, business owners, and managers who are involved in CRE or seek to collaborate with CRE companies, understanding the distinction between inbound and outbound leads is a crucial part of effective prospecting.
In this article, we will explore the definitions of inbound and outbound leads in the context of CRE prospecting and offer relevant examples to help you navigate this dynamic landscape.
Inbound Leads Defined and Examples
Inbound leads are defined as prospects who reach out to your company and express an interest in your services, properties, or partnerships. These leads can come from marketing and advertising efforts such as online campaigns, social media, content marketing, and referrals.
Inbound leads demonstrate a higher level of intent because the person actively sought you out and made contact. Because they have taken the initiative to make contact, they are more likely to be engaged and convert from prospect to client or customer.
Inbound leads can come from a range of activities, including but not limited to the following:
Website inquiries: Someone visits your website and completes a fill form or request for information (RFI), which then goes to your sales development or marketing team.
Demo requests: This is a specific type of website inquiry where a prospect requests to see your product or service in action. For example, request a demo of Biscred’s sales prospecting tool.
Email inquiries: Prospects may find your email in an advertisement, by browsing online, or through some other means and reach out to you by email.
Phone calls: Though it may seem rare these days, people do still call to speak with a real person on your end, especially if they are eager to receive information quicker than waiting for an email response.
Website chat: Website AI chat tools can answer questions, and they can be used to collect information from visitors.
Social media engagement: People can engage with your social media posts and pages, comment on content, or send direct messages through the social channel.
Referrals: Leads may come from satisfied clients, industry peers, or partners that recommend you to their network.
Inbound leads are valuable as they represent prospects who have already shown an active interest in a company's offerings. In fact, some research suggests that conversions from inbound leads generate three times more ROI than outbound methods. Why? One factor that we have found to weigh heavily on the ROI of outbound prospecting is the time it takes to identify and qualify leads. That is one of the reasons our team created the CRE prospecting environment Biscred.
Outbound Leads Defined and Examples
Outbound lead generation involves initiating contact with potential clients or partners. These are people that have not expressed explicit interest in your company but may benefit from what you offer. This approach requires outreach and targeted communication to capture the attention and interest of potential clients.
Outbound lead generation includes the following:
Cold calling: Sales representatives proactively reach out to prospects by phone in order to introduce their company and offerings.
Email campaigns: Personalized and targeted emails with business insights, educational info, and offers sent to prospects.
Networking events: Prospects can be met at industry conferences, trade shows, and networking events.
Direct mail campaigns: Physical marketing materials, such as brochures or postcards, can be mailed to prospects.
Social media outreach: Potential clients can be attracted and engaged with on a variety of social media platforms.
Outbound leads require careful planning, research, and effective communication strategies to generate interest and create opportunities.
Traditionally, outbound marketing tends to have lower conversion rates compared to inbound marketing, but with innovative sales prospecting tools, we’re changing that. SDRs and BDRs are seeing higher conversion rates, as they access a broader pool of potential clients.
How Does Biscred Fit Into Inbound vs Outbound Demand Generation?
Inbound demand generation requires you to attract attention through branding and marketing activities. Outbound lead activity starts with identifying prospects that fit your ideal candidate profile. Both types of marketing activities can help you grow your business, and most smart sales development and business development teams use a combination of both outbound and inbound strategies. Outbound prospecting, however, can help you proactively push your company forward instead of passively waiting for inbound efforts to work.
In the commercial real estate world, you have to approach outbound prospecting far more deliberately. This is where Biscred comes into the picture. It is a powerful prospecting platform that makes commercial real estate data accessible to those who wish to do business with CRE. With this platform, you can search CRE-specific data and quickly find viable prospects instead of searching standard CRMs and public databases full of spotty information. Filters include:
Company industries, including investment firms, developers, architects and more
CRE asset experience, including retail, mixed-use, life sciences, industrial, governmental and more
Company size, from 1 to more than 1,000 employees
Property count, from 1 to more than 1,000
Job titles and seniority levels (junior level to executive)
Geographic by city, region or state
Biscred empowers you to find accurate and updated contact information along with a prospect’s location, level of seniority, and experience in a certain asset class. With advanced filters and alert systems, you can easily stay in front of changes and access the most relevant information for your outbound marketing efforts.
Biscred is the most powerful CRE sales prospecting tool available, offering users an extensive database of validated information that encompasses millions of data points. Schedule a demo to see how it works if you’re ready to truly leverage an outbound strategy and achieve real growth.