Why You Should Invest in Smarketing

According to HubSpot, 70% of buyers have done their research before they talk to Sales, and 59% prefer not to talk to Sales at all. This is even more of a reason for sales and marketing to work hand-in-hand.

Ryan Erskin of Forbes sums up the situation perfectly explaining that, “B2B customers today progress more than 70% of the way through the decision-making process before ever engaging a sales representative. If you’re so focused on what happens in the latter 30% (pricing, discounts, and sales tactics), then you’ll miss the first 70% and wonder why your pipeline isn’t filling up any faster.”

With that in mind, let’s explore how we can address this referenced 70% stake, by providing valuable content that will attract customers.

Sales & Marketing Need to be Aligned and Held Accountable

Clear Goals Need to be Defined

Both sales and marketing need to have a clear goal of what they want to achieve. Sales has a clear revenue number they are working toward while often marketing does not always have a set revenue number they are accountable for. Marketing needs to establish clear goals too.

For example, how many leads need to be generated in a given time frame to reach a business or campaign goal? If you don't yet have a benchmark number to use, work backwards from your revenue goal and apply your average conversion numbers.  This will allow you to establish the number of marketing qualified leads (MQLs) that marketing should aim to generate. 

Keep in mind that Marketing should also be involved in sales pipeline meetings to learn more about which leads converted and why/why not. This will show confidence that to sales that marketing is also invested in the quality of these generated leads.

Establish Clear Definitions of Targeted Buyers and Leads

Sales and marketing need to have clear definitions of the following: Who is your target buyer? What makes someone a good fit as a qualified lead? What actions indicate that there is an interest/need from the customer? 

The below diagram from HubSpot illustrates a Lead Qualification Matrix which sales and marketing teams can use to help bucket leads into different categories and define the next steps. The matrix qualifies leads by ‘Fit’ (your buyer persona) and 'Action' (Hand Raisers who have downloaded an asset on your site, etc.).

In most organizations hand raisers that are deemed a good fit will be called immediately. Some organizations will also call on sales-ready leads while others may leave those up to marketing for nurturing. Thus, it is up to your organization to closely define which categories should be followed up with and by whom. Every team should be aware of the definition of a qualified lead, and who is going to follow up in each of these categories.

Start by Creating the Right Content

The power of good content stems from both sales and marketing. Marketing is often tasked with producing content on their own, without direct input from sales. However, to optimize results, sales and marketing must work together.  Inbound marketing should not be just a marketing function but a marketing/sales function. 

• Start by creating your ideal customer profile, then define your buyer personas based on the type/behaviors of the individuals working in your target organizations. To help build your buyer persona you can conduct customer interviews to learn about commonalities, demographics, job roles, knowledge/skills, challenges, etc.
• When you think about content, do not just create self-promoting, ‘sales-y’ content but also create educational content that helps customers solve a problem they may be facing.  Instead of giving the same old product pitch, provide value-add content that will help your prospects/customers solve their everyday challenges.
• Produce content that is necessary in your selling process. Consult with the sales team to see what content will help them drive an opportunity along the pipeline.   Your content should showcase your expertise and build the "trust factor" rather than just adding another piece of content to your resource library. As their ‘trusted’ source for quality content, customers and prospects will continually come back to you for additional information and knowledge.
• Make sure content is part of every step of the sales process by ensuring that you have something of substance to provide to prospects each time you reach out to them. This will allow your sales reps to follow up regularly with prospects with “I just thought of our last conversation and I wanted to send you our recent case study that addresses some of the points we talked about…”.  
• Experiment with different types and unique content media. Enthusem, for example, creates personalized video messages and allows you to send direct mail by combining video content with physical mail. You should also make interactive content part of the marketing and sales journey.
• Don’t stop at the customer sale. Content creation goes far beyond just making the first sale. Your teams need to work on creating content to drive new customers and continue to make existing customers happy.  You should make sure they understand your products and services well and become believers in your organization. You will then have the opportunity to up-sell and cross-sell your other products/services to your existing customers.  And, hopefully land a great testimonial for your website and promotions.

Finally, in order to collaborate successfully there should be one source of truth for your data (either your CRM system or marketing automation platform) that both sales and marketing teams are using to have full and accurate visibility into each other’s activities.

If you need help with setting up a successful closed-loop marketing process or a content strategy, we are here to help. Please contact us.