What? Sales helping Marketing? That’s not the way we generally think of the marketing-sales relationship — We expect that marketing’s role is to help sales sell. Well, yes, that is marketing’s primary responsibility, but the relationship isn’t strictly one-sided. There are a number of things sales reps should be doing to improve the quality of Marketing’s deliverables.
Why is this in Sales’ interest? First of all, sales people are in conversations daily with customers. The knowledge that they obtain can be key to the success of marketing’s communications, because the audience for most of marketing’s deliverables is, after all, customers. Who knows them better than Sales?! But that knowledge is more valuable if Sales shares it with Marketing, where it can be used in many ways:
Targeting and segmentation – Sales can help marketing avoid messaging mistakes by providing feedback on the viability and importance of certain vertical markets and demographic segments.
Positioning – Experienced sales people who know well both customers and the competition can help help refine the positioning statement to align it with the world in which the product must compete.
Personas – Personas are profiles of typical buyers of your particular product. Sales, since you are the people who know these people best, share that knowledge with Marketing.
Social media – Not only can salespeople get into the conversation, they can and should alert Marketing when they come across important public opinion about the company or the competition. Just remember, social media is conversations on topics of mutual interest, so avoid pitching.
Messaging – Messages must address the concerns of prospective buyers. Sales needs to help marketing understand any new concerns they uncover.
Competitive Intelligence – As new information becomes available in the field, it is critical that Sales feeds competitive updates to marketing for verification and sharing with other reps. Nobody is better suited to this task than the feet-on-the-street salespeople.
Playbook – Most Sales Playbooks include an Objection-Handling Guide. It is important that Sales let Marketing know what objections they are hearing to help make a better Playbook.
Customer Stories and References – Sales should let Marketing know which happy closed customers might be good Customer Stories and references.
These are all marketing deliverables that benefit Sales. The better they are, the better Sales is at closing deals. And good marketing can shorten the sales cycle, too.
Because Sales’ involvement needs to be proactive, make it incredibly easy for them to share what they know about customers and competition. Marketers, you can start by getting to know a few of your company’s sales leaders, and show them the value of sharing what they know. Then, leverage your existing CRM system to create a feedback loop that will strengthen the sales-marketing relationship. Consider creating a wiki that allows both Sales and Marketing to make field information updates immediately accessible. Break down those silos!