Inbound, Outbound, Allbound: Why The Best GTM Teams Do It All

Sales and marketing debates often pit inbound against outbound: which one is better, which should you focus on, where to invest budget. But the smartest go-to-market (GTM) teams in today’s B2B world have moved past this either-or thinking. They practice “allbound” - a synchronized approach that blends inbound and outbound into one powerful growth engine. In short, they do it all, because inbound and outbound each amplify the other when done right.

Inbound vs. Outbound Is a False Choice

Inbound leads (those who come to you via content, ads, referrals, etc.) are fantastic - they often have high intent since they sought you out. Outbound prospects (those you reach out to proactively) open up your TAM; you’re not waiting for them to find you. Why would any growth-minded team willingly give up either approach?

The truth is, relying solely on inbound can limit you - you’re constrained by those who happen to discover you. On the flip side, outbound alone can be inefficient if you ignore the ripe opportunities already coming your way. Allbound means you capture existing demand and create new demand. It’s the complete funnel.

Allbound in Action

Consider how inbound and outbound can dovetail. Say your marketing team runs a webinar or produces a killer whitepaper - that’s inbound magnetism at work, drawing in interested folks. An allbound strategy doesn’t stop there. After the event, your sales team can launch outbound plays targeting attendees or even those who clicked the invite but didn’t show up. They might send a follow-up email referencing the webinar content and offering a one-on-one demo (proactive outreach built on an inbound interaction).

Conversely, your outbound efforts will often drive people to engage with your inbound channels. A cold prospect might ignore your first email but later Google your company and download a case study - flipping into an inbound lead. With an allbound mindset, that lead isn’t treated differently because they originally came from outbound; marketing will nurture them and sales will keep an eye on their activity. It’s a continuous cycle, not two separate silos.

Breaking Down the Silos

Executing allbound requires tight alignment between marketing and sales. Shared goals (like pipeline generated, not just MQLs or call quotas) ensure everyone is rowing in the same direction. Teams also need shared visibility: sales should see what content or campaigns prospects have interacted with, and marketing should see outbound touchpoints. A unified platform can help here - for instance, Unify connects intent data from your website and marketing campaigns directly into sales workflows. This means whether a lead comes inbound or is touched via outbound, all signals end up in one place.

The best GTM teams orchestrate inbound and outbound like a well-conducted symphony. There’s a cadence: content drives awareness, outbound converts it to pipeline, and insights from sales feed back into marketing optimizations. Allbound isn’t a buzzword; it’s simply recognizing that proactive outreach and reactive marketing together outperform either one alone. So the next time someone asks “inbound or outbound?”, the only correct answer - if you want maximum pipeline - is “both”.