Whether or not your sales team knows it, conversations they’re having with prospective buyers can spark some of the most effective content marketing material.
But why do these experiences get lost—and wasted—in the day-to-day lives of salespeople and content marketers? Because it’s easy for these two teams to put their heads down, focus on the work at hand, and stay in their silos.
If we want to avoid this common scenario, we must establish systems that allow sales to consistently and clearly express their ideas and findings to the marketing department, who can transform those findings into valuable content.
Here are some easy-to-implement approaches that will ensure the wisdom of the sales team is shared with their marketing counterparts.
1. Share Questions, Comments, and Feedback
Mark Hunter, a sales expert and keynote speaker believes “every question that a customer asks, every objection that a customer has becomes a viable blog post and/or a viable e-book.” In other words, there are no ideas too small, too one-off, or too abstract to be ignored in the content marketing production process.
Sales teams should start a list of ideas based on the questions, comments, and feedback they receive from customers.
Sales teams should start a list of ideas based on the questions, comments, and feedback they receive from customers. This list could be aggregated from the team during regular meetings, or compiled on a collaborative platform, physical or digital. Sales should then share this list with marketing. While it may seem simple, this process can generate some big opportunities.
2. Share Your Content Needs
Sales-focused content ideas are important, but identifying the biggest content trouble-spots is essential. Where does your sales team need the most support? In a specific vertical? On a particular handout? Pointing out missing sales-oriented content will help the marketing team identify gaps, and start allocating resources to fill them.
Encourage your sales colleagues to be proactive. If they notice one piece of content, such as a case-study, list of testimonials, or best practices that works particularly well in a certain vertical, but haven’t seen much of that type of content produced for other verticals, why not request it to be made?
3. Offer To Create Content
There is some merit to the idea that if you want something done right, you might have to do it yourself (for a little while, at least). The sales team, with guidance from their content-centric colleagues, can contribute to the content creation process and provide valuable assets for all stages of the funnel. In doing so, they’ll not only get what they need, but will be building up their own personal brands by contributing to the industry conversation.
How much content a sales team has the capacity to produce will vary from company to company. However, the truth remains that every sales professional wants and needs more great content to help them do their jobs well, whether they know it or not. These solutions can help meet those needs by facilitating a better level of communication between sales and marketing.