Say you were keeping a list and checking it twice, where would you put your marketing colleagues? Would you put them firmly on the Naughty side? Or, have your marketers helped you reach your goals, earning a spot on the Nice list, instead?
In sales, you rely on marketers to keep the leads flowing in so you can spend more time on building relationships and closing deals. If you’ve found that your lead chalice hath runneth over this past year with high quality sales opportunities, here are 4 things you can start doing for your marketing team to keep that goodwill going!
1. Write Some Content.
There are three reasons why throwing your hat into the content ring is something your marketers will love you for:
- Even though your marketing team will be involved in sales calls from time to time, you’re on the front lines every day, and as a result, are the most in tune with customers. Your blog posts or other content ideas can help address some of the needs and market signals your customers identify that your marketing team may not be as keen to.
- Modern marketing operations rely on a steady flow of high quality content. Helping offset the weight of this responsibility will allow marketers to focus more on other important initiatives, like fine-tuning various nurture campaigns and other initiatives that, ultimately, should help improve the quality of leads you receive.
- It will help raise your profile with prospective customers, which should help convert more leads into sales wins. When customers see that you’re actively involved in thought leadership and can read your writing, it will give them confidence in your understanding of their needs and help develop the kinds of relationships that consistently close deals.
2. Follow Up Diligently on Campaign Leads.
With all of the marketing software out there today, marketers are available to drive a fairly data-driven ship. So oftentimes, when your marketers have been working on a certain campaign to drive more leads, like a LinkedIn PPC campaign or maybe one from a recent conference, they’re doing so with reason: They believe this campaign will product the best chances of you getting a high-quality win. (Or, so we hope.)
Make sure to follow up diligently on those leads in particular. Of course, that’s not to suggest you should forego higher quality opportunities from other sources, but preventing marketing leads from falling through the cracks will help identify or demonstrate the value of these campaigns, and result in more opportunities for you to close in the long run.
3. Offer Sales Intelligence.
If you don’t already, get in the habit of sharing information you learn on calls or meetings with your marketing team on a regular basis — especially what content and resources are working, aren’t working or would be useful to have. A lot of companies will do this more formally, but keeping it casual can be just as effective. You can just make a habit of walking over to your marketing team to tell them about experiences and insights you’ve had during calls or customer meetings.
For marketers, who are often juggling a variety of projects and initiatives, this insight is invaluable — and not to mention, will keep them focused on and aware of what you need to help you sell, which should result in higher quality leads and greater alignment between your teams.
4. Share Marketing Content.
Between you and your fellow sales colleagues, chances are you a have a pretty large and diverse network of contacts. So when your marketers develop new content or are engaging with prospects on social media, be sure to give them a little boost by promoting it on your networks, as well. It may not seem like much, but it does help — and is especially important if you’re at a smaller company working to establish a web presence.
‘Tis the season for giving! And hopefully, if you give some support to your pals in marketing, you will receive in abundance the gift of high quality opportunities in return. While sales and marketing might not always be in lockstep, taking this time of the year to reflect and start the new year off on the right foot will benefit all parties, while getting you started down the path of an outrageously successful 2015!
