If you’re in BtoB Sales, you may be thinking that this great content stuff and demand generation talk belongs in marketing. After all, you need to close deals! “This mumbo-jumbo’s not for me. I need to be out there talking to prospective customers.”
I think the problem is us. We’ve been talking about the marketing point of view for a long time. Now let’s talk about your world in Sales.
Let’s examine a Sales scenario to illustrate the power of content marketing and marketing automation software. The point we want to make clear is this:
The primary beneficiary of content marketing and marketing automation is Sales.
Sales Scenario 1: Without content marketing and marketing automation
Sally Smith, a Sales rep for us, calls target customer and leaves a message. Sally waits a few days and leaves another voice-mail message. Sally sends an email. After a few weeks, after more voice-mails and e-mails – with no response, Sally gives up.
Sales Scenario 2: With content marketing and marketing automation
Sally calls prospect and leaves a message. Prospect visits website and checks out the company. Though he did not fill out a form, Sally knows who it is and edits the anonymous visitor record with the contact name and company.
Seeing what the prospect did, Sally calls again and leaves a personalized message. Prospect visits again and downloads a white paper – completing a form. (And since she edited the record, both visits are captured. The prospect is automatically added into lead nurturing – and valuable information is shared over time. Because we’ve implemented lead scoring we’re able us to see exactly when they are sales-ready – ready to talk to Sales.
45 days later, Sally is notified that she has a new lead. She calls the prospect and the prospect answers. “Sally, great to hear from you. I’ve been getting so much great information from your company and I’m convinced you can help me. I look forward to meeting you.”
I hope you can now see how content marketing and marketing automation actually benefits Sales.
If you’re in B2B Sales and you feel you’re not getting the quality leads you really need, please share this post with your Vice President of Sales.
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Author: Jeff Ogden (@fearlesscomp) is the President of the B2B lead generation consultancy Find New Customers. Find New Customers helps companies dramatically improve revenue results by transforming the way they attract, engage and win new customers. Contact Find New Customers by calling (516) 495-9350 or sending an email to sales at findnewcustomers.com.