The Inbound Growth Blog

The Inbound Growth Blog covers all topics relating to an integrated marketing strategy. We write about inbound marketing, social media, integrated marketing strategies and the sales process.

Small Business Growth Strategies - Sales and Marketing Alignment

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Posted by John Beveridge on Jun 6, 2012 9:07:00 AM

sales-marketing-integrationYou’re probably familiar with how inbound marketing generates leads by helping buyers find you on the internet and providing relevant educational content to them as they progress through their buying process.  However, inbound marketing is not a panacea – the job of inbound marketing is to produce sales-ready leads for the sales team to close.  Here are several tips that growth-oriented companies use to involve and integrate the sales team into their inbound lead generation programs.

Bring Sales into the Process Early

It’s important to give sales a seat at the table as you are developing your inbound lead generation strategy.  The first step of any marketing effort is to develop buyer personae – the wants, needs and demographic traits of your typical buyers.  Who better to help develop buyer personae than those who have the closest contact with them?  The sales team works with these people every day and should know their wants, needs, likes and dislikes.

Once buyer personae are developed, the next step is to create relevant, educational content that helps them solve their business problems while positioning your company as a Trusted Advisor.  Again, the sales team is a great resource to help develop the editorial calendar.  Ask your sales team what are the 10 most pressing problems their prospects face – the answer to that question can lead to your first 10 blog posts and give you a good sense of what types of eBooks, whitepapers and other content you should be developing.

Lastly, you should have the sales team help you sketch out the typical buying process for your products or services, from problem identification to purchase.  This process will provide the structure for your lead nurturing campaign, from timing to content offers to match the buying cycle to the lead scoring formula.

No marketing process is perfect at its inception – by involving the sales team at the beginning, you develop a framework for an iterative process that will facilitate continuous improvement.

How to develop an integrated marketing strategy

 

Give Sales Access to Leads before they are Qualified

While sales will not be reaching out to most leads until they are sales-ready, it’s a good idea to let the sales team see the leads as they are moving down the funnel.  In some instances, a “soft touch” phone call early in the process may identify a lead that is already sales-ready.  Be careful with this approach, because an approach that seems too aggressive could turn off a “top of the funnel” lead.

Sales can also begin the prospect research process prior to the lead being deemed sales-ready.  The sales team can research the lead on their company website and social media platforms (particularly LinkedIn.)  This process allows the sales team to begin developing coaches and referrals based on mutual contacts that they have with the lead.  They can also bring any previous experience that they’ve had with the lead into the lead scoring formula.

Turning Sales-Ready Leads Over to Sales

A well-structured lead nurturing process includes a “bottom of the funnel” offer like a free trial, demonstration or consultation.  By connecting sales with a lead that requests a free trial, demonstration or consultation, the sales person is viewed by the prospect as a consultative educator who is helping them, not an annoying interruption to their busy day.  It will take some time to dial in the process, but every sales person I know relishes the opportunity to interact with a prospect on that basis.

In summary, the job of inbound marketing is to provide qualified leads to the sales team.  The job of the sales team is to close those qualified leads.  By integrating sales into the process early and often, you increase your chances for success – increased revenue growth.

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Topics: Business Management, Marketing Strategy, Sales Process

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