When we’re training sales pros at various organizations, we always ask them the same question: Why aren’t you sharing content? After all, the marketing department produces blogs, infographics, webinars, and podcasts. So why isn’t sales sharing this content with their buyers? The most common response is an old adage I hear all the time: “I’m too busy.”
If you’ve thought about purchasing an employee advocacy tool for your sales and marketing teams to share your organization’s content on social media, you’re definitely on the right track. Employee advocacy is an extremely effective way to increase your revenue. But proving the business case for employee advocacy can be a challenge, and it’s not always easy to get executive buy-in.
Salespeople are governed and driven by dollars and cents. If you want a piece of their attention span then it better be about something that is going to help them hit quota and make commission!
Does your sales team understand your content strategy? Chances are the answer is a resounding “No.” And you’re not alone. Recent research from Richardson, a Philadelphia-based sales training consulting firm says that there is a disconnect between the content that marketing produces and the needs that sales reps have to advance sales opportunities.
How often does your sales team share content?
We wanted to find out the answer to this so we decided to conduct research that tests the assumption many content marketers have, which is that sales teams will naturally share content.
However, what we found out was that our findings proved otherwise.
Since the technology industry claims to be the most cutting-edge, we set out out to conduct audits on sales professionals sharing content within some of the top global companies.
And what we found isn’t pretty. Let’s get right to it, here are the findings.
Sales pros: what do you need from marketing to execute Social Selling? If you answered “content,” you’re not alone. Many people I’ve talked to give the same answer. And it’s true—you certainly need content from marketing. But content is simply the tool or device that the sales force needs to start the conversation. To execute Social Selling, however, sales pros need something much more important from marketing.
Short answer: it depends.
First of all, your sales professionals should be sharing content with the market at the bare minimum. Buyers are already 57% through the purchase process before sales professionals even speak to them. If you want to hit quota, it’s important that your salespeople are present in shaping their buyers’ journeys.
If you want you sales professionals to go above and beyond, they should be taking part in content creation.
It’s undeniable that content marketing is effective for your sales team’s objectives. From establishing expertise and credibility to generating new leads and accelerating revenue. Content helps sales and marketing align to better serve their customers.
The average buyer consumes over 11 pieces of content before making a purchase decision. Your buyers prefer to be educated by a trust source rather than bombarded by advertisements. This is why marketing teams have made content a priority for their organization.
Content marketing is not a “nice to have” anymore, instead it is an important priority for sales and marketing teams to have. With proper alignment and culture between sales and marketing teams, organizations have the ability to create content that accelerates revenue. Check out the infographic below by Salesforce on why sales teams should invest more time on content marketing.
Organizations who align content to the buyer’s journey understand that this is not only a competitive advantage but that content addresses buyer interests and challenges. It helps answer what your buyers want, where they want it and when they’re ready for it. Aligning content to marketing/sales funnel stages is the most widely adopted practice among Best-In-Class marketing teams according to Aberdeen Research. This is to ensure revenue can be attributed to their content marketing efforts.
So marketers, I have a very important question to ask you: do you know if your content is generating revenue for your business? Particularly if you’re about to launch a new initiative to scale content production, you need to pause and evaluate the limitations and opportunities of your current insights factory.
Ask yourself:
We know that 57% of the buying process is out of our control, and 74% of today’s buyers are conducting more than half of their research online before making that purchase. So when your buyers turn to social media for answers, you want them to find your content! It positions you and your sales team as a trusted advisor & thought leader.
Sales for Life was founded with one goal – to become the most trusted sales resource for its customers. During our journey, we’ve had the privilege of serving thousands of sales professionals and leaders around the world, from start-ups to Fortune 50 corporations.
