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Marketing as Leadership |
Does Sales know what to say to effectively close the business you send to them? Or, do you hand-off prospects without providing interest profiles, activity histories and sales tools that effectively help the rep to close the deal? Marketing Interactions works with clients to create a strategic communications platform that includes appropriate, compelling sales conversation toolkits as well as a surefire process for opportunity-to-customer transitions. We also help clients create a closed loop feedback system between sales and marketing, to make sure that those tools keep working for the sales force. "Marketers who deliver quality leads supported by intelligence-rich data like prior interaction histories and full responses to jointly designed qualification questions win over sales-led organizations that are typically skeptical of marketing’s ability to help them close more deals." - Laura Ramos, Forrester, Improving B2B Lead Management, 10/2006 Marketing needs to help sales have situational conversations, focused on the prospects specific interests. The quality of the first sales conversation will establish company credibility, provide differentiation and get the deal done – without conceding on price. Current research shows that sales resources spend 40 – 60 hours per month on non-selling activities. Nearly 100% of reps are creating/recreating content, with detrimental effects on the consistency, accuracy and appropriateness of the messaging provided. However, 82% of executives say that reps are unprepared for meetings [Sirius Decisions]. What’s your sales time drain? In a recent study, one VP of Sales estimated $20M per month, which is attributable to reduced sales productivity, lost opportunities, and wasted marketing investments. Whose problem is it? In the study, marketing said it’s a sales problem. That they don’t go that far downstream. It's time marketing started driving downstream, and strategic communications platforms that include sales conversation toolkits is the means to do just that. A strategic marketing campaign ties all facets of the sales and marketing process together. When employing a contextual approach, each sales conversation is an extension of the story used to initially begin the relationship. Consistency and meaningful experiences build customer trust. Sales must transition seamlessly into the customer conversation to increase acquisition rates. Marketing has the information sales needs, they simply need to provide it to sales in a meaningful and usable fashion so that sales doesn't spend their time translating the company’s boilerplate datasheet or product collateral into the prospect’s business realities. When marketing provides the appropriate sales tools, sales can and will focus on selling. Read related blog posts and articles: |
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