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January 25, 2021 Content Chat Recap: Marketing & Sales: How To Remove Silos For Sales Enablement

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Content plays an integral role in the buyer’s journey. Customers need how-tos and educational resources to perform their jobs better, as well as details about your product(s) and how your offering is unique from others in the space.

In an ideal setting, marketing and sales teams will act seamlessly to work with customers to understand their needs, identify content priorities, and streamline resources. Unfortunately, though, it is more often the case that sales and marketing teams act independently with only brief interaction, which hurts your customer experience and drains your team’s resources.

In this #ContentChat, we’re joined by Shira Abel (@ShiraAbel), CEO of Hunter & Bard, to explore how teams can remove silos and implement better sales enablement practices. Read the full recap below, where we answer “what is sales enablement,” discuss the content types that are beneficial throughout the customer journey, and share best practices for enabling greater alignment between sales and marketing.

Q1: For those unfamiliar with the term, what is sales enablement and why is it important for marketing teams?

Sales enablement is the process of partnering with a sales team to create and provide resources for any stage of the customer journey.

Sales enablement content can include anything from email or social media content to the systems used to distribute and track those messages.

The process involves an ongoing partnership. As content is created, the team can measure its success, review the customer pipeline, and assess what content or resources are needed next.

Sales and marketing teams should meet and communicate regularly to ensure a successful partnership. Shira recommends meeting at least once a week.

Q2: How has sales enablement changed in the past year, specifically given the rapid (and presumably ongoing) shift in favor of digital experiences and content consumption?

In-person events have understandably decreased in priority for customers, but digital and hybrid events and direct mail have increased in importance. Account-based marketing is especially important to reach targeted customers.

Audience/customer expectations have shifted this past year, and content teams must adapt to these new needs.

Customers expect consistent interactions with brands and prefer their issues to be solved in one call if possible. It is important to implement systems and tools for sales to quickly access the right content. It is also important to train the sales team on how to read customer signals and how to navigate these content systems.

Q3: What type of content do you recommend for each stage of the buyer’s journey?

Start by documenting your customer journey. Assess who is in each stage, the various channels and mediums they use, and how they consume content before contacting your team.

In general, top-of-funnel content is educational and focused on helping your target audience perform their jobs better (not sell them on your product). This content can include blog posts, how-to videos, general guides, and more.

Middle-of-the-funnel content dives deeper into your customer’s needs, and will include in-depth guides, e-books, and case studies (just to name a few).

Bottom-of-the-funnel content will be more specific to your company, your offerings, and why customers should choose you. Partner with sales to test several strategies, and review what is working to better hone your approach.

Q4: What questions should marketing teams ask their sales counterparts to better understand how content can help them?

Consider asking these questions to the sales team to better understand the type of content that will help them.

A valid question to explore: should marketing teams have direct access to customers? Yes! However, there needs to be an established connection with the customer, as well as executive buy-in of the strategy. If your marketing team is unable to speak with customers, though, at a minimum you should review sales call recordings and propose questions for them to ask on future calls.

Q5: What are the most under-utilized content distribution methods that you think teams should further explore for sales enablement?

Shira recommends Folloze to boost the amount of data you get on your email outreach.

Direct mail is often under-utilized, and a tool like PFL can help with analytics.

 

Erika recommends SlideShare to distribute presentations and visualizations.

Some channels are not under-utilized, but are utilized un-productively. LinkedIn strategies, for example, can be refined.

Q6: How does sales enablement support account-based marketing efforts? What are some typical enablement activities or tools for ABM?

Everything that marketing does in an ABM program is sales enablement. Shira and John explain more here:

Q7: How can marketing and sales teams ensure ongoing alignment? What specific touchpoints do you recommend? And what are some pitfalls to avoid?

Integrate sales throughout your marketing planning and execution processes. Host ongoing weekly meetings with sales and marketing to discuss the sales process and identify any content needs or areas of refinement.

Marketing should align with sales after any significant customer calls so that they can partner on the next steps.

Be proactive in building a relationship and establishing common ground with sales. You do not want to only talk with them when there is an emergency.

Stop placing blame on each other.

It all boils down to this: you’re all part of the same team. You need to build and nurture the marketing and sales relationship. By giving everyone a seat at the table and actively seeking their input, your team will accelerate your content creation and better meet your customer needs.

About Alek Irvin

Alek Irvin is a content marketing professional with a rich history in social media management, executive thought leadership development, and media relations. As a consultant at Erika Heald Marketing Consulting, he creates human-focused content and thought leadership platforms that help brand leaders connect and engage with their communities. Alek has worked with a range of startups and Fortune 500 companies across the B2B technology and consumer spaces, including IBM, Dell Technologies, Hitch Works, Emtrain, Integrate, and Frameable. Connect with him on Twitter @AlekIrvin.

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