Truly successful organizations are made up of a series of symbiotic relationships. One such relationship is that between sales and marketing. Without marketing, sales would have no materials to support its process. And without sales, marketing would have no purpose. Despite their dependence on each other, there’s often a disconnect between the two. Sales is concerned that marketing doesn’t provide them with enough qualified leads, case studies, sell sheets, web content, etc., to meet their goals. While marketing laments the fact that sales doesn’t use the materials or nurture the leads they do have. Bridging the gap between these sides can result in more effective materials and a better overall sales process. So how can we get there?
1. Leverage the Insights of Sales
Your sales team is on the front lines with prospects and customers. They understand what clients are looking for and what drives them to close. They are having the conversations your marketing assets are designed to support. You have the opportunity to improve both your materials and your relationship with sales by leveraging the valuable insights they’ve gained. Sit in on calls. Have them walk you through the sales process and explain the language clients use to talk about their business. Together sales and marketing should use these insights to build buyer personas that will better help you understand who you’re marketing to and how to reach them.
2. Audit Where You’re At
Before you can find common ground between your marketing team and sales, you need to figure out where you stand. Pull together every last print and online piece the sales team has available to them, including materials they’ve created on their own. Review content and assess whether or not the piece serves its intended purpose. Is it on brand? Where does it fit in the sales process? Does it speak to the appropriate audience? Use the personas you developed with sales to help determine which materials are worth keeping, what needs to be updated and what should be tossed out. During this process you will likely find the pieces created by sales are not on brand, but don’t just cast them aside. They will give you valuable insight into your sales team’s marketing needs. Use this insight and work with sales to develop pieces that address these needs in a way that aligns with the rest of the branded marketing materials.
3. Inventory Your Assets
Once you have a final list of marketing assets, record everything in an inventory document that outlines each piece’s purpose, location, owner, etc. There are a number of templates available online to get you started. You can customize these as you see fit for your sales organization. You may even choose to include links that allow sales to order physical versions of printed materials or incorporate the assets into your current marketing automation solutions such as Marketo or Salesforce.
4. Create a Strategy Together
Meet with key players in the sales organization to walk through the inventory document. Discuss the intended audience for individual assets. Explain what materials will be most helpful in each stage of the sales process and how they are best delivered. From there you can determine which content holes still need to be filled and how urgent each need is. Once everyone is on the same page, you can develop a content strategy and prioritize sales asset requests.
5. Adjust As Needed
Keep sales in the loop as you continue to improve the materials. Share metrics you’ve found with your sales organization. Ask them which pieces have been working and which ones aren’t as helpful. Make note of trends they’ve found in their interactions with clients that might suggest they need different or improved assets. Explore why they think certain pieces aren’t as effective as others. Consider the feedback that supports your metrics and optimize your content strategy accordingly.
By working closely with sales as you develop and execute your marketing content strategy, you’ll help both teams be more effective and avoid creating materials that miss the mark. A healthy working relationship between sales and marketing will foster better assets, stronger leads, happier sales personnel and a stronger organization.
