How can marketing and sales teams boost their results without adding any new tools or teammates? By acting as one team and working together.

Too often, marketing and sales teams work in silos, which misses a key opportunity to streamline resources, drive the most value from your content, and help both groups achieve their goals.

In this #ContentChat, we’re joined by Pam Didner (@PamDidner), B2B and tech marketing consultant, author, and host of the B2B Marketing and More podcast, to explore how marketing and sales teams can collaborate to attract, capture, and nurture customers. Read the full recap below to learn:

• How content can help throughout the buyer’s journey
• Expert tips for aligning sales and marketing teams
• Ways to measure your sales enablement program success

Q1: What is sales enablement, and who in an organization should be involved in developing a sales enablement strategy?

Sales enablement is when teams align with sales to engage prospects across the sales funnel and more effectively close deals.

A1a: Sales enablement def: Enable sales so that they can engage with prospects at different sales stages and close the deals promptly. However, the conventional def of sales enablement is only sales training & onboarding #Contentchat

— Pam Didner (@PamDidner) July 18, 2022

A1b: Depending on how your organization is structured. Many teams are involved in helping and supporting sales such as sales ops, marketing, business units, product team, and even HR and finance. #ContentChat

— Pam Didner (@PamDidner) July 18, 2022

A1c: Ownership of sales enablement plan depends on the structure of your company. Some companies have a sales enablement team, then they own it. Otherwise, it can be marketing, sales ops. In some cases, HR owns sales enablement. It depends. #ContentChat

— Pam Didner (@PamDidner) July 18, 2022

A1a: Publishing content is only the first step in your #contentmarketing journey. You’ve also got to distribute it to the right people at the right time. That’s why you need to let the same team know who the content is for and how it helps. i.e., sales enablement. #ContentChat https://t.co/JTRu6zq6o5

— Erika Heald | Content Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) July 18, 2022

A1. Sales enablement is supporting sales/revenue teams with messaging, content & tools to move prospects from MQL to closed deal. *Ideally,* this is a strategic partnership b/t sales, marketing (& maybe customer success), aligned around shared insights &KPIs. #contentchat https://t.co/HAewbvBAIY

— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) July 18, 2022

A1. Process of providing your sales team with the training, tools and content to sell effectively! It is definitely a multi-department function! #ContentChat

— Shruti Deshpande 🇮🇳🇬🇧 (@shruti12d) July 18, 2022

Content marketing has a significant role in sales enablement, and so can other business units like product, finance, and HR.

A1b: To ensure your #salesenablement strategy actually gives your salespeople and your other customer-facing folks the information and visibility they need, you will want to have representatives from these teams that span regions and personas. #ContentChat

— Erika Heald | Content Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) July 18, 2022

A1: I see it as a plan + resources that help the sales funnel become more effective and efficient. Besides sales, I’d involve marketing and content. I’d also argue for involving product in the conversations at some point if you’re at a tech/SaaS-type company. #ContentChat

— Melanie Graham (@mg_content) July 18, 2022

I have a SaaS client that struggles with when and how to involve product into the conversation. Do you have any tips or related blog posts? #ContentChat

— Tod Cordill (@todcordill) July 18, 2022

I think this is a common struggle, Tod!

I’ve found some success with regular (weekly?) Sales <> Product sync meetings. Sales can ask Qs, Product can provide As and demos. #contentchat

— Melanie Graham (@mg_content) July 18, 2022

A1: As for who should be involved definitely your social media / PPC team if your running paid ads #contentchat

— Sweepsify (@Sweepsify_) July 18, 2022

A1: Sales enablement focuses on productivity in sales, and those involved in developing a strategy can include social media/ marketing individuals #contentchat ~Jenna

— Nimble (@Nimble) July 18, 2022

Should also includes sales ops and whoever does sales training and onboarding as well. #Contentchat

— Pam Didner (@PamDidner) July 18, 2022

Very true! It’s so helpful to inform the primary curators and trainers, and make sure you are providing them information in the preferred format(s).#ContentChat

— Erika Heald | Content Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) July 18, 2022

A1.1 Pre-sales, LDRs (lead development Reps), marketing of course, product marketing too #ContentChat

— Shruti Deshpande 🇮🇳🇬🇧 (@shruti12d) July 18, 2022

Q2: What types of content are valuable for sales enablement throughout sales engagements with prospects and customers?

[Read more…] about July 18, 2022 Content Chat Recap: Sales Enablement 101 for Content Marketers

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.

1/ Sales enablement is critical when you’re a B2B selling to enterprise. It’s the resources that support sales as accounts make their way through the funnel. https://t.co/BFN1pN4dXW

— Shira Abel (@shiraabel) January 25, 2021

A1: So often the content marketing team is creating content with the intention of sales using it. But like everyone else, the sales team is overloaded with information. Sales enablement is the process of giving them the context to put your content to work. #ContentChat https://t.co/r7jAAFrsq8

— Erika Heald | Content Marketing Expert (@SFerika) January 25, 2021

A1 Sales enablement boils down to providing the salesperson or team with the material/info and tools they need to best make a sale
-Alyx #contentchat

— Charlie Appel Agency (@ColfaxInsurance) January 25, 2021

A1: I see or define sales enablement as listening to the sales team, what their needs are and creating content to help them reach their target audiences. #ContentChat

— Bernie Fussenegger #Digital360Chat (@B2the7) January 25, 2021

That’s a good definition. I usually see us as providing a warm lead for the sales team, but yours focuses on listening to what they need.. and I like that point of view. #ContentChat https://t.co/FvzaTkrcZe

— Shane Shaps (@520eastbrands) January 25, 2021

A1: Sales enablement is the provision of campaigns, strategies, and materials to better enable sales to do their job! #ContentChat

— John Cloonan (@johncloonan) January 25, 2021

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

/2 This includes everything from the emails, to the materials sent in the emails, to the system sending the emails as well as the direct mail component, the sponsored linkedin ads, and the folloze boards where the materials are placed. #contentchat

— Shira Abel (@shiraabel) January 25, 2021

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.

/3 On top of all that, it’s looking for signals in the analytics of who Sales should call. And following up with sales to see who was a fit, and who needs to go back to nurture. #ContentChat

— Shira Abel (@shiraabel) January 25, 2021

/4 content is a major part of an account-based marketing campaign (which is the main method for selling to enterprise). Having the right content at the right time with a focused message. #contentchat

— Shira Abel (@shiraabel) January 25, 2021

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

I feel the communication part is important missed most times. Sales and marketing need to continue engage and discuss needs and fully understand the sales process and who they are trying to go after. It is also engageing with the audience to also better know them. #ContentChat

— Bernie Fussenegger #Digital360Chat (@B2the7) January 25, 2021

Sales and Marketing should be meeting weekly, and occasionally even more than that. Marketing needs the feedback to target better. Once Sales starts seeing better and faster closed-wins – they buy-in quick. #ContentChat

— Shira Abel (@shiraabel) January 25, 2021

[Read more…] about January 25, 2021 Content Chat Recap: Marketing & Sales: How To Remove Silos For Sales Enablement