The idea of an article about how sales can assist marketing may seem like an anomaly to most. But, one of the most significant disconnects I’ve seen is the perception that marketing isn’t involved with, or doesn’t care about, growing revenue for a company. I think this issue exists when marketing teams don’t focus on activities that are likely to drive revenue.
The reality is, most marketing teams do care about growing revenue, but they cannot provide the kind of support that helps drive revenue because they require information or input from the sales team.
What happens, then, is that in many cases, a marketing team will put together a campaign that they think will be successful, with no input whatsoever from the sales team, and the campaign falls flat.
For a campaign to attract and convert customers, your marketing team has to know certain things about your customers and their buying habits. They also need to know more than the obvious about their pain points. That’s where your sales team comes in.
Here’s How Sales Can Assist Marketing and Get More Sales
When your marketing team has more information about your customers, their marketing initiatives will be more targeted and measurable. And when a campaign is measurable, you’ll know whether it’s working well and how it can be improved.
There are several steps you can take right now to get the marketing team the information it needs.
Sales Can Assist Marketing by Clearly Explaining the Sales/Purchasing Process
When your marketing team understands the purchasing process from a buyers’ point of view, they can craft content that will help your salespeople overcome obstacles at each step of the sales process. Knowing your buyers’ most common objections (and what your sales team says to overcome them) will give the marketing team information they can use to produce marketing materials that overcome objections before the objections are raised.
Sales Can Assist Marketing by Giving Them More Significant Customer Details
What are the average customers’ underlying problems? If you have more than one ‘average’ customer (and most of us do), creating ‘buyer personas‘ can help to segment your customers AND their pain points.
Your salespeople and customer service reps are at the front line of your company, so they’ll see details that the marketing team never will. It’s very important that the marketing team knows which customers have which specific problems. This knowledge will enable them to create collateral that helps illustrate or simplify how and why your services or your products are the right solution(s) for each customer segment.
With a better understanding of your customers’ problems, the team could also create instructional videos demonstrating how a product works. In addition to being a valuable resource for customers, the videos themselves can attract leads depending on the nature of the product.
Dealing with customers on a day-to-day basis, your salespeople have tremendous insight into what makes a customer tick. Sharing this information will give shape to your buyer personas, which your marketing team can then use to map out your content to match a buyer’s journey.
How Else Should Sales Assist the Marketing Team?
Sales Can Assist Marketing by Understanding the Marketing Process Themselves
When your sales team has a better understanding of your marketing process, they can spot opportunities that your marketing team may have missed. Communicating these missed opportunities will give your marketing team the information they need to tailor your sales and marketing materials better to fulfill a specific need. Anything that can help your salespeople tailor the sales process to suit their needs can benefit the company as a whole.
There are so many more ways your sales and marketing teams can work together to increase your company’s success. The examples above barely scratch the surface of what can be accomplished, but they will give you a great start!
Let’s do this … Together!
Rather than struggle alone with decisions about what to change, where to invest, and what will work, bring in a team to support you. Together, we will discover the answers you need and teach you and your team to do it on your own. Our goal is to work ourselves out of a job so you can be self-sufficient!
Now is the time to take charge of your company’s digital sales and marketing efforts. I can help. Just give me a call, and let’s discuss the best options for moving forward.
We’ll define metrics, set goals, and measure KPIs going forward. You’ll watch your marketing efforts transform into a revenue-generating department that you can tie directly to a positive impact on your bottom line.
