Let’s get Sales and Marketing working together, a guide to smarter content
Sales and marketing tools have come a long way since I started in the business. I had the opportunity to witness the cloud revolution first hand in the early 2000s, but looking back I can’t recall how cloud services actually helped me in my day-to-day life as a sales guy back then.
When I was out on the road meeting clients, any sales collateral I used was either saved somewhere on my hard drive, printed out and kept in my bag or stored safely in my head. That was all well and good, but a world away from how things work these days.
Fast-forward to 2017 and it’s difficult to imagine anyone on my Sales team not having immediate access to web, cloud and mobile resources. My sales reps can download that presentation they weren’t expecting to need, check back through emails pertinent to a sales pitch or look up notes from a previous meeting in an instant. What’s more, they can do it all from whichever device they choose; laptop, tablet or smartphone.
It’s all very convenient, but the truth is even this isn’t really using the power of the cloud to drive sales.
There are many things a sales person needs to succeed; the ability to spot an opportunity and a core product they believe in are among them.
But the one thing that can make or break a deal is content. Marketing collateral can support a salesperson’s pitch, answer a client’s question, or even open up a new opportunity. However, it seems that while in most organisations the content is available, it’s just not being used by Sales.
You’ve probably heard the statistics: B2B marketing organisations are spending more than a quarter of their annual budget on the development, delivery and promotion of content to drive business. However, on average, 70% of that content is never used by the Sales team. The content the Marketing team is producing may be good, but it’s not finding its way out into the field.
This cannot go on any longer — and it doesn’t have to. Marketers can ensure their lovingly crafted assets are available to the Sales team in an easily accessible format and can be personalised to suit the client.
Take a web-based service such as Showpad for example. Showpad plugs into a content collaboration service such as Box. This enables the sales person to easily brand and personalise client presentations and proposals while they’re on the move. It’s the sort of tool that will raise your content utilisation, and thereby, your ROI.
Another popular sales platform that integrates with Box is Salesforce, which can be used to break down the barriers between content and sales. Assets stored in Box can be managed and updated within Salesforce, which means that sales reps get to use a familiar interface and system which works the way they do.
So if you’re struggling to get the Sales team to use your content, it’s quite likely your content isn’t the problem. You just need to help the Sales reps access, update and personalise the assets you’ve worked hard to create. And that means taking a proactive approach to tech — find the tools that can help forge those links between Marketing and Sales.
What’s more, helping Sales personalise content isn’t the only reason for your business to switch to the new world of cloud-based collaboration. Here are five other business reasons for you to consider. Who knows, as I mentioned in my last article, the tech gem you unearth to solve this particular problem may get picked up by other lines of business and get implemented elsewhere in your organisation too!
