Continued from Marketing Can Help Drive Sales? Say What! Part One

Marketing’s goal is to ensure that every seller has the required knowledge, skills, processes, and behaviors to optimize every interaction with buyers. And equipping reps to make the most out of their time with potential buyers is as much marketing’s responsibility as it is the sales team’s.

While sales numbers may get directly attributed to the sales team, there are a variety of ways marketing contributes to conversions. Marketing teams can enhance their contribution by optimizing the ways they support their sales team in the field.

Six Ways Marketers Can Help Drive Sales

4. Content That Utilizes Rich Media Tells the Story Better
In addition to boosting prospect engagement and driving conversion behavior, rich media content also helps give buyers an interactive, personalized presentation experience.

Instead of flipping through a pitch deck or clicking through a PowerPoint, reps can make their sales pitch dynamic and articulate a product actively utilizing tools like tutorial videos and product demonstrations. Prospects can then consume the benefits of a product or solution in a more tangible, practical way that is relevant to their specific needs.

5. Integrate Data and Analytics with your CRM and Marketing Automation
Quantitative data from the field contributes to and informs the effectiveness of existing systems, workflows, and processes. Marketing teams depend on analytics from sales to keep outbound strategies like email campaigns and digital advertising targeted and accurate.

However, this data is only as useful as it is integrated with systems like Salesforce and marketing automation. Without a means for relaying real-time data from the field back to corporate, companies will fail to get maximum ROI from their investments in sales and marketing tools and tactics.

6. Feedback from Sales Reps
The more quantitative data marketers can collect from the sales field, the better informed they will be when refining and optimizing sales processes, including content development and deployment tactics. Utilizing technologies that enable marketers to track usage data from sales presentations, like what file was used, how long it was open, and if it resulted in a form submission, gives marketing teams visibility into what content tools and tactics contribute to sales results.

Qualitative data is beneficial for optimizing sales enablement, too. Anecdotal feedback from reps about things like specific buying behaviors, what presentation media customers most respond to, and what marketing content gets used the most can help set sales enablement processes up for success at the early stages of content creation and technical implementation.

Selling Is a Marketing Responsibility, Too
While reps are busy in the field selling and developing business, marketers can better support their efforts when the lines of communication are clear between the two teams. Collaboration and alignment early in the process helps ensure the marketing team’s every effort and investment is in service of their salespeople’s goals and results. When sales and marketing are aligned, companies see the results on their bottom line.