While sales and marketing don’t always see eye to eye, the fact is that marketing and sales must be inexorably linked, especially now as new challenges have emerged. More sophisticated customer targeting methodologies, media options and martech technologies can align to help attain the qualified leads and sales numbers internal and external stakeholders demand. And it’s just a fact that helping sales achieve more business is the most directly impactful thing a marketing team can achieve.
To support these efforts, Colman Brohan & Davis, Inc. (CBD Marketing) has developed a multi-part series designed to better align marketing efforts with sales activity. The series explores ways that marketers can increase the value and contributions they bring to each step of the sales process.
Part 1: Defining your ideal target companies
Perhaps the most important issue sales and marketing leaders can agree on is the need to have sales qualified leads (SQLs) in the pipeline. When the marketing team knows the type and quantity of potential customers that are most valuable to sales, it can crystallise a strategy for providing sales with what it needs. Bringing clarity and specificity to defining target companies allows for more precise messaging and – ultimately – business success. Read more about defining your ideal target companies.
Part 2: Aligning marketing and sales around the buyer’s journey
Frequently in B2B organisations, the ‘disconnect’ between marketing and sales stems from a lack of an organising principle around which both functions can align their efforts. The buyer’s journey can be the platform that both teams can come together and agree on in a cooperative way. Aligning marketing and sales around the buyer’s journey not only creates a real partnership that fosters better dialog and more effective overall efforts, but can also boost sales results and increase revenue. Read more about aligning marketing and sales around the buyer’s journey.
Part 3: Developing customer personas
You’ve mapped out your buyer’s journey. You understand every step along the way. But who are your buyers? And what motivates them to engage with your brand? That’s what personas are for. A customer persona is more than just a ‘target audience’ profile. Done right, personas are deep and insightful portraits that can help you identify and reach key segments by focusing on why and how and when they make decisions. Knowing that can tell you:
- How to appeal to your customer’s specific needs.
- How they make decisions at each point on their journey.
- Where and when to find them so they not only hear your message – but also find it meaningful.
Learn more about developing customer personas.
Part 4: Leveraging martech to deliver qualified leads
Sales reps often comment that they rely on their networking, connections and referrals to make sales and that engaging with ‘near-in’ prospects is the best way to close a deal. But marketers can expedite a sales teams’ efforts, improve their productivity and increase both lead volume and quality. In fact, with the right martech tools and processes, the marketing team can actually be far better equipped to identify, qualify and prepare a prospect for conversion than the sales team, moving a prospect from MQL to SQL status. In doing so, marketing demonstrates real value to the sales team, which elevates marketing to an indispensable partner. Learn more about leveraging martech to deliver qualified leads.
Part 5: Programmatic media buying for B2B marketing
While third-party data companies are still most frequently associated with consumer audiences, the availability of B2B audience segments has expanded to the point that most segments are either readily available for targeting, or can quickly be created, simply by requesting them from your DSP. Learn more about audience targeting and demand generation using programmatic media buying for B2B marketing.
