Many B2B businesses will abandon a digital marketing plan before it’s had a fair shot to take effect. But I can’t blame them. Often what happens in the first few months of digital marketing is that the leads coming in are unqualified, junk.
Their marketing efforts haven’t been properly channeled, providing leads that are too weak to convert customers. If the purpose of marketing is to bring in leads that can convert to sales, what’s missing?
I often find a lack of Sales Enablement!
Ideally, this is how it should go: Digital Marketing + Sales Enablement = Expected Sales Goals Met
Let’s start by clarifying Sales Enablement. It is an iterative process that aligns the right resources, tools, and other marketing materials for the sales team to use in their sales process, ultimately leading to a sales conversion.
Next, let’s imagine this in a digital landscape – companies are constantly producing a variety of content such as blogs, videos, and other resources – but to what end? Are they arming their salesperson with the resources needed to effectively use this content to sell to potential customers? If the answer is no, Sales Enablement has yet to be activated. The company’s content marketing strategy must work in tandem with the sales activity so that the desired results can be achieved and efforts on both sides aren’t wasted.
How can a marketing team help shape a successful sales strategy?
With the plethora of information available to identify potential customers, a sales manager can get easily overwhelmed. The marketing team can help by providing deep data analytics to create accurate customer personas. They can map the user journey to simplify the process and zero in on the accounts with the best chance of converting. A lead scoring system can go a step further in driving these decisions even more precisely.
Technology is the key: Technology Enablement with a Customer Relationship Management tool (CRM) has become an important component in uniting the efforts of sales and marketing teams. With a CRM marketing activity becomes an asset to sales teams with real-time information. To continue this cycle, salespeople should track their activity and share results with the marketing team. This allows marketing teams to use the information to improve future marketing strategies.
To begin the process, a simple, easy-to-use CRM is critical for every business, to align and build a solid connection between marketing and sales with a limited budget.
What has your experience with sales enablement been so far? I would love to hear from you and answer any questions you have.
