Inbound vs Outbound Sales: Which strategy works better on LinkedIn in 2025?

Do not skip this blog if…

You’re still figuring out which strategy will work better for LinkedIn - inbound sales or outbound sales.

I get it; it can be overwhelming when many people claim their way is the "only way" to succeed on LinkedIn today.

But the truth is that both strategies work well.

The difference lies in knowing when to use each or both so it can actually help you hit or exceed your sales goals.

So today, I will be explaining everything inbound vs outbound sales.

We’ll go deeper into -

↪️ What’s the difference between both?
↪️ Which is better - inbound or outbound?
↪️ What is inbound sales - the process, examples, and pros and cons.
↪️ What is outbound sales - the process, examples, and pros and cons.
↪️ A new strategy - inbound-led outbound,
↪️ Some FAQs, and finally
↪️ Which one should you use for your business?

So get your coffee, sit back, and let’s begin!

What is the difference between inbound and outbound sales?

The major difference between inbound and outbound sales is - Who initiates the sales process?

In inbound, it’s the potential customer, while in outbound, it’s you.

Think about it like dating for a second (bear with me on this analogy).

Inbound means creating an attractive dating profile and waiting for people to reach out to you, whereas outbound means seeing someone interesting and sending them a “Hi” first

Now, you can tell, inbound sales happens when a customer shows some interest in what you offer by finding you or your content online/ offline.

On the other hand, outbound sales happens when you reach out to potential leads who haven’t expressed an interest yet.

On LinkedIn, it could be via cold outreach, LinkedIn content, ads, etc.

Other methods involve cold emails, ads, cold calling, cold messaging, etc.

Is inbound better than outbound?

The short answer: Yes and No.

The longer (and more helpful) answer: each approach has clear strengths and weaknesses, and what works best for you depends on several factors.

Inbound works better when:

✅ You're playing the long game.

Building an audience and attracting inbound leads takes time. If you can invest months in content creation before expecting significant results, inbound can be powerful.

✅ You have expertise to share.

If you genuinely know your stuff and can create valuable content, inbound lets you demonstrate your expertise naturally.

✅ You’re not into direct selling.

Many people feel uncomfortable with cold outreach. If that's you, inbound might feel more authentic.

✅ Your target audience is active on LinkedIn.

Some industries and roles are very engaged on LinkedIn, making it easier for them to reach through content.

✅ You want higher quality leads.

People who reach out after consuming your content are often more qualified and ready to buy.

While outbound works better when:

✅ You need results quickly.

You can start an outbound campaign today and potentially have sales conversations this week.

✅ You're targeting specific companies or decision-makers.

You can choose exactly who to approach rather than waiting for them to find you.

✅ Your market is niche.

If your ideal customers are rare, waiting for them to find your content might take forever.

✅ You're testing new markets.

You can quickly validate whether a particular audience responds to your offer.

✅ You have a clear, compelling message.

Outbound can be very effective if you can explain your value proposition in a few sentences.

The truth is - you gotta use both.

We do both, and we’ve realized one strategy alone won’t drive enough leads in.

We’ll talk about it later, though.

What is Inbound sales on LinkedIn?

Like I said earlier, inbound sales happens when a customer comes to you.

On LinkedIn, it means they noticed your content, message, ad, or company somewhere.

They decided to reach out to you based on what they’ve seen.

Inbound sales process

A typical inbound sales process consists of 3 stages-

👉 Awareness

In the Awareness stage, people start realizing they have a problem that needs to be solved.

They may or may not be looking for solutions actively, that depends, but here, they are mostly trying to figure out what their problem is.

This is where the identification step comes in.

These strangers start converting into leads. They discover your content, they relate to it, and they think:

All this while you might not be actively selling anything.

👉 Consideration

Next comes the consideration stage, where these “strangers” now look for solutions to their problems. Their goal is to evaluate options and narrow down possible solutions.

Here come the 2nd and 3rd steps - connect and explore.

These marketing qualified leads, or MQLs, start becoming more and more qualified as direct interaction begins via social media and Google.

These people might start turning into sales-qualified leads or SQLs now, engaging with your content, asking questions, etc., showing definitive interest in your SOLUTION.

Then, they might finally sign up for a demo or trial, discuss their issues, budget, etc., to see if you fit their needs.

👉 Decision

At last, is the Decision stage, with the final step - Advice.

Now, these “prospects” start turning into “leads.”

They’re looking for the final solution to implement. This is where you can help them make the right choice.

When you address their concerns, and they see the value they’re getting, they’ll be ready to turn into customers.

Inbound sales examples

Let’s understand now how this entire process works for us at SalesRobot:

#1 LinkedIn Content

We share relevant, authority-building LinkedIn content (including posts and articles) on our accounts following a structure.

Once a post has enough engagement, we scrape the comments and reach out to them via SalesRobot.

We work with a simple content calendar - we simply share what's working right now for us and our clients.

In our experience, we’ve seen that the posts that get the most qualified leads are always the ones with real metrics with proof (screenshots of results, social proof).

This helps build authority and a loyal audience, who trusts you when they need a solution.

#2 SEO

SEO is another great source of our traffic, and we have consistently used high search-intent keywords for our blogs and LinkedIn articles.

It’s also currently the biggest source of traffic for us, with over 20,000 website visitors per month!

#3 Website Visitors

We've set up a system using RB2B, Zapier, and SalesRobot that:

1. RB2B identifies people visiting our website.
2. Zapier helps us set up a link between RB2B and Clay that helps us enrich the data.
3. Then Zapier sends those leads into a SalesRobot campaign.

This turns anonymous visitors into actual conversations.

We generated about $2k in revenue using this setup. Watch the entire automation setup here ⏬

#4 Weekly Newsletters and Videos

We use:

✅ newsletters,
✅ emails,
✅ weekly podcasts with customers, and
✅ educational videos

to stay in touch with our subscribers and let them know about where we are and what our future plans are.

This is a great way to make them feel a part of our family and build authority so that sometime in the future when they are ready to purchase, they will remember and trust us.

Sign up here if you’re interested! 😊

Inbound sales pros and cons

Of course, it’s not all bells and whistles like it looks. It starts wayyy slower than you can imagine, and it’s definitely a long game.

So here are some pros and cons of inbound sales:

Pros

✅ Warmed-up leads - People who reach out after consuming your content are usually more qualified. They understand what you offer and have self-selected based on interest.

✅ Better conversion rates - When someone initiates contact, they're already partially sold. The trust built through your content makes them more likely to convert.

✅ Positioning as an expert - Your content establishes you as an authority before sales conversations begin, giving you more credibility.

✅ Compounding returns - Unlike outbound that resets after each campaign, inbound efforts build upon each other over time.

✅ Works while you sleep - Content continues working for you 24/7. A post from months ago might generate a lead today without additional effort.

Cons

❌ Slow - Building enough content and visibility to generate steady inbound leads typically takes 3-6 months minimum.

❌ Requires consistency - Inbound only works with regular content creation. Miss a few weeks, and visibility quickly drops.

❌ Less predictable - You can't perfectly control how many leads you'll get each week, making forecasting challenging.

❌ Dependent on LinkedIn algorithm - LinkedIn's algorithm decides who sees your content. Algorithm changes can impact your visibility overnight.

❌ Limited targeting - You can't choose exactly who discovers your content. You can only target topics, you can't target specific companies or decision-makers.

Now, let’s see what outbound sales is all about.

What is Outbound sales on LinkedIn?

As I said earlier, outbound sales is when you reach out to potential customers first.

On LinkedIn, this means you're actively searching for prospects and initiating contact with them.

It could be sending connection requests to your target audience, following up with them, running targeted campaigns, etc.

Outbound sales process

The outbound process is a simpler one, including 5 stages.

👉 Identify

The process begins with identifying your target audience on LinkedIn. You can use Sales Navigator to narrow down your list of prospects.

However, I’d not trust it fully if I were you :)

👉 Generate

Next comes the generation stage, where you actually qualify your prospects and clean your list to make sure your outreach efforts are not getting wasted.

Now, you can finally develop a strategy and reach out to people.

👉 Connect

Once done with the strategy, it’s time to reach out to those people now. Make sure you’re sending good, personalized, value-first messages and not sales pitches initially.

We use SalesRobot to connect and send these messages.

It can send automated connection requests to people and write these hyper-relevant messages for your ICP, so they will never know that a bot wrote it unless you tell them.

‍Automating this entire process really helps because this is not something you can scale up manually, even if you try.

It’s physically and emotionally draining. So it’s just better this way.

Now, your only goal is to build a genuine relationship with your prospect.

Click here to see some real customer stories where we discuss how you can actually reach out to your prospects to get better acceptance and reply rates.

👉 Meeting

Congrats, you’re past the hard part, almost.

Now, it’s your job to understand their problems and see if your solution actually fits their needs or not. Remember, you’re not here to pitch, you’re here to have a conversation.

Listen to what they’re talking about, and you’ll know.

👉 Close

Now, when you understand they are a good fit for your solution, you can present your solution to them and guide them toward the next steps.

It might not happen in one go, so make sure to follow up appropriately until you get a yes or no.

The best closes on LinkedIn don't feel like "closing" at all. They feel like a natural next step after you've shown you understand their problems and can help solve them.

The thing about outbound on LinkedIn is that each step is under your control.

You're not waiting for someone to find your content or hoping the algorithm favors you. You're actively driving the process forward with each person you target.

Outbound sales examples

Let me explain now how this works for us at SalesRobot.

#1 Identifying and Generating

We use 3 tools majorly for this process.

👉 Sales Navigator, Clay, and SalesRobot’s lookalike feature to build and enrich lead lists.

👉 When we have our list, we simply run a campaign in SalesRobot with that list.

It’s super easy to set up.

↪️ Once you sign up for the free trial, log in to SalesRobot.

↪️ Then click here:

↪️ Now click on “I’m an advanced user” and proceed to name your campaign.

↪️ Now, you have 9 different options to add prospect lists here ⏬

Add your link from the method that works for you, and click on “Configure Settings.”

↪️ Now, configure your settings and proceed to add your message sequence.

We prefer to add 3-5 personalized steps depending on who we’re trying to target, with a 2-4 days gap in between.

↪️ Select “From Scratch” here.

↪️ You’ll see a number of “Advanced Steps” other than add messages and emails.

These really help you warm up gradually to a 2nd or a 3rd degree connection on LinkedIn.

↪️ Once you’ve added the messages, click on “Save” and “Start Campaign.”

We also integrate different channels to boost our outreach to increase the response rates and eventually, booked meetings.

We use LinkedIn, Facebook, and Email.

And, of course, keeping an eye on everything is important.

Outbound sales pros and cons

Here also, there are pros and cons, let’s talk about them:

Pros

✅ Quick action - You can start generating conversations this week rather than waiting months for content to gain traction.

✅ Precise targeting - You choose exactly which companies and decision-makers to approach, rather than hoping they find your content.

✅ Predictable pipeline - With consistent outreach, you can more accurately predict how many leads you'll generate each month.

✅ Direct control - Your results depend on your activity level and messaging quality, not on platform algorithms.

✅ Faster market testing - You can quickly test different value propositions and target markets to see what resonates.

Cons

❌ Higher resistance - Cold outreach typically faces more skepticism and defensive responses than inbound approaches.

❌ More difficult to scale - Personalization takes time, and automation often reduces response rates. People can see you as a spammer. Tons of issues.

❌ Relationship starts from zero - Unlike inbound, where prospects already know your expertise, outbound starts with no established credibility.

❌ Platform limitations - LinkedIn restricts how many connection requests you can send, and excessive outreach can trigger penalties.

Still confused about which one will work best for you?

Let me explain it to you.

Inbound-led outbound: The new strategy that's working in 2025

Inbound-led outbound is when you use your content and inbound presence to warm up cold outreach. Instead of sending completely cold messages, you:

1. Create valuable content that targets specific pain points
2. Identify people who engage with or view that content
3. Reach out to them with personalized outreach referencing their engagement
4. Can include similar prospects who haven't engaged yet but match the same profile

This gives you the speed of outbound with the warmer reception of inbound.

It’s basically handpicking leads to reach out based on intent data.

Here’s an example of how we did it:

This post went viral last month-

So we scraped all of these comments (which were inbound) first and got them into a sheet.

Then, we fed this list into SalesRobot and ran a campaign with this list to reach out to them.

We sent the lead magnet out first and then asked a discovery question to see if they were a good fit for our ICP or not (which was us reaching out to them to see if they were simply interested in the lead magnet or if they’re having problems with LinkedIn outreach.)

Once we sorted it out, we got some amazing replies like:

So this is one way of using inbound-led outbound for your business, which worked for us and might help you to get better leads and results in the long run without the cons of either.

FAQs

Are ads inbound or outbound?

Ads fall into a bit of a gray area, but they're generally considered outbound.

Because you're interrupting someone's scrolling or browsing experience with your message.

That said, there's some nuance here. If your ad is highly targeted to people actively searching for solutions like yours, it feels more inbound-like.

But at the end of the day, you're still reaching out to them rather than them finding you organically.

On LinkedIn specifically, ads are pushing your message to people who didn't ask for it - classic outbound approach, just with better targeting than old-school methods.

Is email outbound or inbound?

It depends on how the person got on your email list:

Did someone sign up for your newsletter after reading your content? That's inbound.

Did you scrape email addresses from LinkedIn or built a list? That's definitely outbound.

The simple rule: if they asked to hear from you, it's inbound. If they didn't, it's outbound.

Is paid media outbound?

Yes, most paid media is outbound because you're pushing your message to people rather than having them discover you naturally.

This includes LinkedIn sponsored posts, Google display ads, YouTube pre-roll ads, and most other forms of paid advertising.

The key thing that makes something outbound is that you initiated the interaction, not the potential customer.

With paid media, you're essentially saying, "hey, look at me!" rather than them saying, "I need to find someone who does X."

Is inbound sales easier?

Easier? Not exactly.

Different? Absolutely.

Inbound sales is often less emotionally draining because you're not facing direct rejection. People coming to you are already interested, so conversations feel more natural.

But inbound requires patience, consistency, and content creation skills, that many people find challenging or expensive.

Building an audience takes time, and seeing zero results for weeks or months can be tough.

Outbound sales is, well…emotionally harder (dealing with rejection) but technically simpler (just reaching out to people).

It's also more predictable – do X amount of outreach, get Y number of responses.

The real answer: whichever approach better matches your personality and strengths will feel "easier" to you.

Is paid social inbound or outbound?

Paid social is primarily outbound.

You're paying to put your content in front of people who didn't specifically ask to see it.

Even though platforms like LinkedIn offer subtle targeting, at the end of the day, you're still interrupting someone's feed with your message.

That said, good paid social content provides value first rather than just pitching - making it feel less "outboundy" than traditional advertising.

Is SEO inbound or outbound?

SEO is 100% inbound.

It means making your content discoverable when people are actively searching for information, products, or services.

With SEO, you're not reaching out to prospects by yourself - you're making it easier for THEM to find you when they're looking for solutions.

On LinkedIn, this could mean optimizing your profile and content with relevant keywords that your ideal clients might search for.

Can you use both inbound and outbound sales?

Not only can you use both - you probably should!

The most successful salespeople on LinkedIn use the “inbound-led outbound” approach:

• Outbound tactics to generate conversations right now
• Inbound tactics to build a pipeline for the future

This combined approach gives you the best of both worlds:

• Immediate results from targeted outreach
• Growing momentum from your content over time
• Less dependency on any single method
• Protection against algorithm changes or platform restrictions

Start conversations through outbound while building your reputation through content.

As your inbound leads increase, you can gradually reduce your reliance on cold outreach.

Conclusion: Which is better for your business, inbound or outbound sales?

You’re here, congrats!

I know this has been a little loonggg journey, but if you've genuinely read this far, the answer should be clear:

Inbound-led outbound is the winning strategy for us and most businesses on LinkedIn in 2025.

This hybrid approach simply works better because:

Pure outbound struggles with increasing resistance.

Decision-makers on LinkedIn are bombarded with cold messages, connection requests are often ignored, and breaking through the noise gets harder every month.

Pure inbound takes too long.

Most businesses can't wait 6+ months for content to gain traction and start generating consistent leads.

Inbound-led outbound gives you the best of both worlds:

• Conversations of outbound
• Warm reception of inbound
• Control your pipeline
• Builds over time

So the question isn't "inbound or outbound?"

It's "How can I use my LinkedIn content to make my outreach more effective?"

Think about it, and once you have the answer, you can scale your outreach up significantly using SalesRobot.

There’s no need for you to connect and message people for 1 hour everyday and update your excel spreadsheet regarding follow ups.

You can start automating it from $99/ mo, it’s that easy! And your account will be safe, dw.

Don’t stress about the manual work, try it out free for 14-days (no strings attached), and if you have any questions, please ask me here.

Until then,
Take care!

‍