Marketing has the skills and expertise to create content to engage the buyer. Yet marketing content often leaves sales wanting for something more or different.
According to Demand Metric, 75% of sales professionals state they “occasionally” or “never” get what they need from marketing. Salespeople have reported that marketing’s content is too generic, it lacks relevance for the buyer or it is out of date.
Marketing can create content with sales insights.
The individuals on a marketing team have spent years studying and practicing their craft. They have the skills and expertise to create compelling communications materials, both online and offline. They use messages and imagery to resonate and avoid sounding “salesy.”
But marketing rarely is afforded the opportunity to interface with the buyer(s). As a result, it is difficult to directly connect with a voice or a face. Instead marketers often fail to see where and how their content “falls short” out in the field or where it truly helps a buyer engage and act.
What marketing needs in a B2B organization is for sales and leadership to enable them to take their skills and understanding to apply to specific buyers, with specific messaging, at specific stages in the buying cycle.
If sales spends time with marketing and makes an effort to communicate regularly, they can help marketing better understand:
- Relevant data points about the targeted buyer
- Agreed-upon buyer personas (both the organizational profile and key decision makers’ profile)
- The buyer journey and the role both marketing and sales play in the corresponding marketing-sales funnel
- The unique content needs exist based on the buyer’s stage in the funnel (to inform, inspire, educate, act, etc.)
- The buyers’ reactions to marketing content, as well as frequently asked questions marketing can help enable sales to easily answer
When marketing creates content that sales can use, everyone wins.
When sales and marketing align, companies can generate 208% more revenue from marketing (MarketingProfs). And when a sales team and leadership provide insights and input to help marketing work smarter and produce more-effective communications, the buyer will better understand a B2B company’s message, value and differentiation.
Continue to review marketing’s content often and track its success or lack of success — and adjust accordingly. Marketing can be an integral part of the B2B sales process. It simply takes some TLC to make it as effective as possible.