Sales and marketing alignment is crucial for business success. While marketing automation can help generate leads, sales automation is needed to move leads through the sales funnel and close deals. The two functions have different motivations and roles in the buying process - marketing is passive and aims to make prospects aware, while sales is active and builds connections. To be most effective, marketing and sales automation solutions need to work together to prepare prospects for well-timed outreach from sales representatives, with marketing educating buyers through content and sales converting buyers. Marketing automation alone cannot close deals, and sales automation alone cannot generate enough leads, so aligning the two processes is key.
Meagen Eisenberg, VP of Demand Generation at Docusign and Robert J. Moreau, CEO, Zyphias Group discuss sales and marketing alignment, the customer journey and key best practices with Docusign client examples and tips. Moderated by Chanin Balance, CEO of Mobilepaks.
7 Methods to Get your Sales and Marketing Teams Aligned InfographicInsideView
Learn what separates leaders from laggards. Then discover 7 best practices these leading B2B businesses follow to achieve sales and marketing alignment.
Sales + Marketing Alignment: Breaking Down Silos for SuccessClevelandHUG
Cleveland HubSpot User Group's May 7, 2015 presentation on how alignment sales and marketing (Smarketing) can delight customers and drive performance. Tips include how to restructure and communicate between teams, rely on data and utilize technology to achieve organizational goals.
In this on-demand seminar HubSpot and BrainSell provide actionable tips to create a Smarketing (Sales + Marketing) approach to automating your business and revenue growth.
Rethinking Sales and Marketing alignment: [How Marketing will help close deals]CRMT Digital
Better Marketing and Sales alignment improves profits, customer services and internal relationships. Most organisations have already realised that traditional business unit divisions hinder more than they help and are now seeking to improve internal relationships between departments. For successful alignment between Marketing and Sales, employees need to be empowered by technology.
Meagen Eisenberg, VP of Demand Generation at Docusign and Robert J. Moreau, CEO, Zyphias Group discuss sales and marketing alignment, the customer journey and key best practices with Docusign client examples and tips. Moderated by Chanin Balance, CEO of Mobilepaks.
7 Methods to Get your Sales and Marketing Teams Aligned InfographicInsideView
Learn what separates leaders from laggards. Then discover 7 best practices these leading B2B businesses follow to achieve sales and marketing alignment.
Sales + Marketing Alignment: Breaking Down Silos for SuccessClevelandHUG
Cleveland HubSpot User Group's May 7, 2015 presentation on how alignment sales and marketing (Smarketing) can delight customers and drive performance. Tips include how to restructure and communicate between teams, rely on data and utilize technology to achieve organizational goals.
In this on-demand seminar HubSpot and BrainSell provide actionable tips to create a Smarketing (Sales + Marketing) approach to automating your business and revenue growth.
Rethinking Sales and Marketing alignment: [How Marketing will help close deals]CRMT Digital
Better Marketing and Sales alignment improves profits, customer services and internal relationships. Most organisations have already realised that traditional business unit divisions hinder more than they help and are now seeking to improve internal relationships between departments. For successful alignment between Marketing and Sales, employees need to be empowered by technology.
How A 'One Team' Mindset Fuels Revenue Growth in 2021Sales Hacker
Macaroni and cheese. Bacon and eggs. Sales and marketing.
All of them should make the perfect team. But somewhere along the line, sales and marketing teams developed deep-rooted differences that need resolution. As organizations grow, this rift widens as the two teams act like two different organizations that plan, execute, and optimize two separate processes for the same buyer.
To develop a deeper understanding, we interviewed 1200+ global sales and marketing professionals - the largest-ever survey on sales and marketing alignment.
Learn from Stephen Pacinelli, Chief Marketing Officer at BombBomb and Brogan Taylor, Head of Enterprise Sales at Freshworks as they discuss the findings and share tactical ways to align the two in order to drive revenue and collaboration.
SMARKETING presented by Bill Faeth, CEO of Inbound Marketing Agents in Nashville, TN
At it's core, Smarketing is fairly simple. It is the alignment of Sales and Marketing around common goals like pipeline and sales quotas which require's visibility into each other's goals and progress. Bill Faeth, founder and CEO of Inbound Marketing Agents, will walk you through the 5 Steps to Integrate Smarketing into your business.
1. Speak the same language
2. Set up a closed-loop reporting
3. Implement a service level agreement
4. Maintain open and consistent communication
5. Rely on data
In this session you'll get best practices in aligning Sales and Marketing teams to drive down costs and increase revenue through a holistic view of your customer’s journey - from demand generation to the final sale and beyond!
Key takeaways:
Increase pipeline through tighter sales and marketing alignment
Execute a winning content marketing strategy
Convert more leads through stronger lead management process
Sales And Marketing Alignment PowerPoint Presentation Slides SlideTeam
Presenting this set of slides with name - Sales And Marketing Alignment Powerpoint Presentation Slides. Our topic specific Sales And Marketing Alignment Powerpoint Presentation Slides presentation deck contains twentytwo slides to formulate the topic with a sound understanding. This PPT deck is what you can bank upon. With diverse and professional slides at your side, worry the least for a powerpack presentation. A range of editable and ready to use slides with all sorts of relevant charts and graphs, overviews, topics subtopics templates, and analysis templates makes it all the more worth. This deck displays creative and professional looking slides of all sorts. Whether you are a member of an assigned team or a designated official on the look out for impacting slides, it caters to every professional field.
Sales enablement technology has been making big waves in the B2B space recently. But do you know how to get the most ROI from your investment? Learn 10 ways that sales enablement can add value to sales and marketing processes and impact the bottom line!
Get Your Sales and Marketing Teams Aligned
Lack of alignment between sales and marketing is an age-old problem, frequently lamented yet rarely addressed. Conquering this issue requires a fresh approach and better understanding of both sides of the relationship. But where to start?
This report is designed to shed a light on the obstacles to sales and marketing alignment, but also show teams where to start, how to collaborate, and how to set aligned goals.
This Mindmatrix presentation on sales enablement offers a step-by-step process for enabling your direct sales teams. Watch this presentation to learn-
-Why is sales enablement is so important?
-What does direct sales enablement involve?
-Why is it time to move beyond traditional marketing automation and CRMs?
-What are the 12 steps to holistic sales enablement
Modern marketers aren’t content to just create leads. They play a critical role in driving sales. Not just in the top of the funnel, but the middle and below. Learn the 4 secrets that leading marketing teams — and KnowledgeTree customers — have learned to help drive revenue to close.
Top10 Sales Transformation Keys to SuccessDSG Consulting
We’ve watched hundreds of B2B organizations succeed as well as fail at Sales Transformation. Sales Transformation cannot happen in organizations where leaders underestimate the level of change required or underinvest in Sales. Here’s our Top 10 list of how to get change management with Sales Enablement right.
Improving CX with AI: Microsoft Case Study [SiriusDecisions Summit 2017]InsideView
In this case study, learn how Microsoft is applying deep AI-driven market intelligence through its applications to impact the different phases of its customers’ lifecycle
The Secret to Building a Sales Enablement PowerhouseMindTickle
Alex from Procore and Marc from MindTickle explore:
State of the industry
Need for Sales Enablement
Sales Enablement and Sales Readiness at Procore
Best-in-class framework for Sales Readiness
Great article by McKinsey in 2022
The pandemic has converted B2B buyers to e-commerce in a big way. B2B sellers need new capabilities to meet their new expectations.
How A 'One Team' Mindset Fuels Revenue Growth in 2021Sales Hacker
Macaroni and cheese. Bacon and eggs. Sales and marketing.
All of them should make the perfect team. But somewhere along the line, sales and marketing teams developed deep-rooted differences that need resolution. As organizations grow, this rift widens as the two teams act like two different organizations that plan, execute, and optimize two separate processes for the same buyer.
To develop a deeper understanding, we interviewed 1200+ global sales and marketing professionals - the largest-ever survey on sales and marketing alignment.
Learn from Stephen Pacinelli, Chief Marketing Officer at BombBomb and Brogan Taylor, Head of Enterprise Sales at Freshworks as they discuss the findings and share tactical ways to align the two in order to drive revenue and collaboration.
SMARKETING presented by Bill Faeth, CEO of Inbound Marketing Agents in Nashville, TN
At it's core, Smarketing is fairly simple. It is the alignment of Sales and Marketing around common goals like pipeline and sales quotas which require's visibility into each other's goals and progress. Bill Faeth, founder and CEO of Inbound Marketing Agents, will walk you through the 5 Steps to Integrate Smarketing into your business.
1. Speak the same language
2. Set up a closed-loop reporting
3. Implement a service level agreement
4. Maintain open and consistent communication
5. Rely on data
In this session you'll get best practices in aligning Sales and Marketing teams to drive down costs and increase revenue through a holistic view of your customer’s journey - from demand generation to the final sale and beyond!
Key takeaways:
Increase pipeline through tighter sales and marketing alignment
Execute a winning content marketing strategy
Convert more leads through stronger lead management process
Sales And Marketing Alignment PowerPoint Presentation Slides SlideTeam
Presenting this set of slides with name - Sales And Marketing Alignment Powerpoint Presentation Slides. Our topic specific Sales And Marketing Alignment Powerpoint Presentation Slides presentation deck contains twentytwo slides to formulate the topic with a sound understanding. This PPT deck is what you can bank upon. With diverse and professional slides at your side, worry the least for a powerpack presentation. A range of editable and ready to use slides with all sorts of relevant charts and graphs, overviews, topics subtopics templates, and analysis templates makes it all the more worth. This deck displays creative and professional looking slides of all sorts. Whether you are a member of an assigned team or a designated official on the look out for impacting slides, it caters to every professional field.
Sales enablement technology has been making big waves in the B2B space recently. But do you know how to get the most ROI from your investment? Learn 10 ways that sales enablement can add value to sales and marketing processes and impact the bottom line!
Get Your Sales and Marketing Teams Aligned
Lack of alignment between sales and marketing is an age-old problem, frequently lamented yet rarely addressed. Conquering this issue requires a fresh approach and better understanding of both sides of the relationship. But where to start?
This report is designed to shed a light on the obstacles to sales and marketing alignment, but also show teams where to start, how to collaborate, and how to set aligned goals.
This Mindmatrix presentation on sales enablement offers a step-by-step process for enabling your direct sales teams. Watch this presentation to learn-
-Why is sales enablement is so important?
-What does direct sales enablement involve?
-Why is it time to move beyond traditional marketing automation and CRMs?
-What are the 12 steps to holistic sales enablement
Modern marketers aren’t content to just create leads. They play a critical role in driving sales. Not just in the top of the funnel, but the middle and below. Learn the 4 secrets that leading marketing teams — and KnowledgeTree customers — have learned to help drive revenue to close.
Top10 Sales Transformation Keys to SuccessDSG Consulting
We’ve watched hundreds of B2B organizations succeed as well as fail at Sales Transformation. Sales Transformation cannot happen in organizations where leaders underestimate the level of change required or underinvest in Sales. Here’s our Top 10 list of how to get change management with Sales Enablement right.
Improving CX with AI: Microsoft Case Study [SiriusDecisions Summit 2017]InsideView
In this case study, learn how Microsoft is applying deep AI-driven market intelligence through its applications to impact the different phases of its customers’ lifecycle
The Secret to Building a Sales Enablement PowerhouseMindTickle
Alex from Procore and Marc from MindTickle explore:
State of the industry
Need for Sales Enablement
Sales Enablement and Sales Readiness at Procore
Best-in-class framework for Sales Readiness
Great article by McKinsey in 2022
The pandemic has converted B2B buyers to e-commerce in a big way. B2B sellers need new capabilities to meet their new expectations.
NOVO MODISMO ACADÊMICO E A PROMESSA DE APLICAÇÃO INDUSTRIAL DE GRAFENOCesar Franco
No encontro que participei na segunda semana de setembro de 2013, o TNT2013 Seville (Spain) – Trends in NanoTechnology, teve uma seção inteira dedicada aos Grafenos, como é moda em todas os encontros de materiais e nanotecnologia. Aparte as apresentações acadêmicas sobre os avanços teóricos e laboratoriais obtidos no estudo do grafeno houve uma seção muito especial intitulada Paralel Session – Graphene - Industrial Session. Nesta seção os players na produção e aplicação do grafeno (BASF, NOKIA, e outras pequenas start up’s) fizeram de forma bastante transparente e honesta suas considerações sobre o uso industrial desse novo nanomaterial. Repetindo o que vimos com os nanotubos de carbono, o modismo acadêmico esta agora centrado no estudos dos grafenos gerando muitas promessas, somas vultuosas de recursos públicos, porém sem perspectivas de aplicação relevante na indústria, por falta de perspectivas reais de aplicação prática e inexistência de perspectivas para a produção em escala.
למה החלטתי ''ללכת'' על תכנית לניהול ידע? מה עשינו עד עתה? איפה הצלחנו? איפה לא הצלחנו? מה אנחנו מתכננים לעשות עוד? איזה תובנות נוספו לנו מהתהליך?. פאול וייסבאך משנה למנכ''ל וסמנכ''ל
הנדסה ותכנון בבזק הרצה בכנס מידע 2002 על תהליך ניהול הידע
http://www.leadersnet.co.il/
Kevin Perry, REGFORM, Past Present and Future--Packaging, Marking and Labelin...Kevin Perry
Kevin Perry, REGFORM, Past Present and Future--Packaging, Marking and Labeling Hazardous Waste Containers and Tanks in Missouri, Missouri Hazardous Waste Seminar, November 5, 2015
Plate Stands of Australia is a house of cutlery, offering exquisite plate stands for commercial and residential kitchens. We have stocked our store with acrylic plate stands that are available in different colours and styles.
The presentation entitled, "Demand Generation Marketing: How to Successfully Create Demand through
Outsourcing" is presented by Larry Fleischman, Director of Marketing for Televerde, a leading B2B provider in sales pipeline development solutions. For more information on demand generation marketing, visit the
Televerde website at http://www.televerde.com/solutions/demand-generation-marketing.
A Pinpoint Systems Corporation white paper discussing how companies must transform from being about them to being about the customer by:
-Committing to a philosophical and cultural shift
-Centralizing the 360° view of customer information
-Enabling intelligent outreach
-Enabling intelligent dialog
To support organizations in making the transformation from a product- and channel- focused organization to one focused on the customer, Pinpoint Systems has applied their expertise in the customer-centric space to create the Marketing System of Record solution, powered by the efficiency of the IBM Enterprise Marketing Management platform.
The tracking features of the solution allow analysts to complete these tasks:
• Attribute customer actions to specific campaigns and target cells.
• Use campaign and response history for audience selection and segmentation.
• Compute standard campaign performance metrics.
• Automatically report those metrics, as well as emerging sales trends, to product managers and other stakeholders.
A quick guide on what Marketing Automation is, steps to success in launching your campaigns, how to optimise activity and enables sales to help drive revenue.
Customer Journey Maps and Buyer PersonasGoodbuzz Inc.
Today’s buyers have more ways to interact with businesses than ever, but this increase in communication channels and platforms doesn’t necessarily translate to a positive customer experience: Only 22 percent of consumers say the average retailer understands them as an individual, and only 21 percent say the communications they receive from the average retailer are “usually relevant.”
Seamless integration of sales and marketing functions has been recognized as a must-have for successful sales enablement. This whitepaper explores another, probably less talked about, yet equally important aspect of sales enablement-asset management.
Are you really benefiting from the full capabilities of your marketing automation technology? The experts explain how you can make the most of your investment in this eBook guide.
Over the past couple of decades, two major channel management automation platforms have attracted widespread attention: partner relationship management (PRM) automation and partner marketing management (PMM) automation. However, the most important area in channel automation—an area that has been neglected and remains a major opportunity—is partner sales enablement or partner sales management. If you are considering an investment in channel automation, you should look at partner sales enablement automation first.
Sales tools have evolved beyond just traditional CRM. Top performing sales teams are leveraging cutting edge technology to focus their sales efforts on the best prospects, arm themselves with the most up to date and relevant sales material, and reduce manual or repetitive tasks. Sales Technology enables sales teams to accelerate the sales cycle by doing things smarter, better and faster, and, ultimately, close more and higher quality deals.
1. SALES & MARKETING ALIGNMENT:
BRINGINGTHEPIECESTOGETHER
t h e p o w e r o f s i m p l i c i t yT M
2. 2
Executive Summary:
As business professionals, we are always looking for that next big thing. The thing that drives
business, increases revenue, decreases operating expense, simplifies the process, and
works more efficiently. We are desperate for solutions that provide an immediate fix to our
productivity and efficiency challenges. That desperation makes it easy to lose sight of the big
picture.
As we continue to pioneer into the golden age of automation, we see businesses clamoring
for sales and marketing automation solutions. Who doesn’t want to open the floodgates of
prospect interest by strategically tracking behavior, triggering relevant content, and driving
more revenue?
The truth is that most people don’t fully understand sales or marketing automation, its
purpose, and how to leverage it in the sales environment. Furthermore, most aren’t aware
of the distinction between marketing automation and sales automation. At the heart of this
misunderstanding lies the broader issue of sales and marketing misalignment. This white
paper reviews the issue of sales and marketing alignment. The ultimate goal is to help readers
understand that marketing automation alone is an incomplete approach, and address the key
role that sales automation plays in driving revenue.
Sales and Marketing - Not Sales vs. Marketing
According to a study by The Aberdeen Group, “Highly-aligned organizations achieved an average
of 32% year-over-year revenue growth - while their less aligned competitors saw a 7% decrease in
revenue.” Therefore, it is crucial for businesses to address the core issue of alignment before
spending on automation platforms. An organization must understand and align the roles of
the sales and marketing teams toward the same revenue goal.
A Sales & Marketing Aligned Culture Has:
• Shared understanding of revenue goals
• Consensus on the target buyer personas
• Definitions of and agreement upon what constitutes a
marketing-qualified lead versus a sales-accepted lead
• Clear outlines of sales responsibilities and marketing
responsibilities
• Shared library of brand messaging and documentation
• Trust between teams and processes
• Software and tools that serve both roles’
complementary yet different purposes
3. 3
The Sales Function Compared to the Marketing Function
The lead that is the easiest for marketing to generate is rarely the lead that is the easiest for
sales to close, and the lead that is the easiest for sales to close is rarely the lead that is easiest
for marketing to generate. What this illustrates is the natural opposition in motivation between
sales and marketing. On one side you have marketing that wants to create the most leads for
the cheapest cost. On the other side is sales that wants to close the most deals with the least
amount of effort. That’s not to say that marketing doesn’t want to create or pay for quality
leads or that sales won’t work hard to close a deal. It comes down to resource allocation.
Marketing seeks to maximize the resources of a finite budget and the use of content. Sales
seeks to maximize the resources of their time and sales technique.
• 61% of B2B marketers send all leads directly to sales; however, only 27% of those
leads will be qualified. (Source: MarketingSherpa)
What many marketers fail to consider is that the salesperson’s time and mental engagement
with the leads that are being provided greatly affects how a campaign performs. If marketing
sends sales low-quality leads, sales might be reluctant to follow up thoroughly, or even at all.
If marketing sends over more leads than sales can effectively handle, then sales will naturally
allow certain leads that they might feel are inferior to fall by the wayside. Studies show that
36% of leads generated by marketing are never contacted by sales. No matter what the
reason, that’s a huge waste of company resources.
• 90% of marketing deliverables are not used by sales. (Source: The New Rules of Sales
Enablement)
Marketers need to focus on the quality of the content and delivering it to the right audience.
Quality content drives qualified buyers further into the funnel. Quality content can attract
the right prospect and filter out those for whom the product or service isn’t the right fit.
Another function of good marketing content is that it maps to the buyer’s journey from initial
awareness to final decision. Even after the lead is generated, marketing collateral should be
available to help nurture the lead and arm the sales representative with tools to move the
prospect through the sales funnel.
Beyond the difference in core motivations is a difference in how sales and marketing functions
in relation to the buying process:
MARKETING SALES
Passive
Makes prospects aware
Active
Makes connections with prospects
Wants the prospect to reach out Wants to reach out to the prospect
Is content reaching people Is people reaching people
4. 4
Marketing Automation vs Sales Automation
While there is a definite distinction between the roles that marketers and sales representatives
play, many decision makers often mistakenly choose one automation tool over another.
With the buzz around marketing automation in particular, many
organizations have chosen this type of platform without fully
considering the actual impact it will have on achieving revenue goals.
If you are using marketing automation as a way to avoid making calls
to reach prospects, then you are using marketing automation in the
wrong way. While marketing automation is a great addition that can
increase brand awareness, provide tracking of existing campaigns, and
drive prospects to reach out, it is not a relationship builder. That’s the
role of sales: to develop relationships, build trust, understand problem
scenarios prospects face, and present solutions that meet the needs of
that prospect.
Consider the buying process of a typical B2B decision maker:
Awareness Evaluation Decision
Feels
Pain
Frames
Need
Researches
Solutions
Compares
Solutions
Seeks
Validation
Solution
Chosen
A prospect has to have a need, and feel the pain of the need before he seeks out your
product or service. Prospects use your content and/or your customers’ word of mouth to
understand what your product or service is and to determine if there is a benefit that your
product or service brings to cure their pain and solve their need. Here is where
person-to-person interaction will always have greater value.
Many prospects feel pain, but are uninformed about
what’s causing that pain. They are misguided about what
their needs actually are, and they are confused about what
solutions are out there. You risk potentially losing a sale
when prospects are left to fend for themselves to interpret
your content and diagnose their own problem. It takes a
trusted advisor — a sales representative — to guide the
buyer through the buying process.
It’s surprising to witness the number of people who see the
word automation when evaluating a solution and assume that
it must do everything — automatically, of course. What people
may not realize is that the activities of sales and marketing are
not the same. They may overlap and work to accomplish the
same goal, but the approach is from two separate directions.
5. 5
Marketing is the process of communicating the value of a product or service to a target
audience or prospect profile. This process of communicating value is performed through a
variety of strategies and tactics: content creation, SEO, PPC, online/print/broadcast advertising,
branding, conferences, webinars, websites, social media, viral, blast emails, and direct mail.
The approach may use narrow and precise targeting or shotgun-blast, wide-net methods.
Regardless of the approach, the purpose is to reach out and draw attention to get leads or
sales. Marketing automation is the technology that allows companies to efficiently streamline,
automate, track, analyze and measure online marketing tasks and workflows, such as email,
social media, websites, etc.
Selling is the process of moving someone toward a purchase decision by building a
relationship and creating an exchange of value between two people. A sales professional may
use cold calling, lead management, scripting, appointment setting, voicemails, email nurturing,
and objection handling as ways to build the relationship and provide the value of information
and education that can ultimately lead to a purchase. Sales automation is the technology
that automates the sales cycle to move leads generated by marketing more productively and
efficiently through the sales funnel.
A strong sales automation platform will help the rep move a prospect toward a decision
with several key functions: automatic distribution of sales-ready leads to representatives for
calls; automation of sales workflows and lead management to ensure every lead is worked
thoroughly using logic defined by management; logical-branch call scripting to help reps
answer questions and overcome objections; automation of email nurturing and standardized
email templates for consistent sales follow up; voice-drop for
voicemail messages so that callers can quickly move to the next
lead; centralized access to a document library of marketing content
to support salespeople throughout the sales process.
Prospects Buying Process
Stage 1: Awareness
During this phase prospects become aware of their need and begin
framing the need with requirements and preferences.
• 65% of vendors that create the buying vision during these early states get the deal.
(Source: Forrester Research)
It is in this first stage marketing automation coupled with content mapped to each stage of the
buying process that can make all the difference for your sales team. It is crucial to establish
a strong presence in the prospect’s mind to help shape the provider preferences. This can
be accomplished through white papers, e-books, or other gated content that will encourage
the prospect to provide his or her email address in exchange for the download. At this point,
the marketing automation solution can begin tracking the prospects movement across your
website, trigger email drip campaigns, and help build a prospect’s interest profile that can be
handed off to sales when the prospect is ready for a sales contact.
6. 6
Stage 2: Evaluation
During this stage, the prospect has a clearly defined need and begins
to research and compare solutions.
• 50% of sales go to the first salesperson to contact the
prospect. (Source: Hubspot)
This is the stage where the handoff between marketing and sales
happens. What’s key to understanding this stage is that when
prospects enter the research phase, they are inundated with “me
too” marketing from several online channels and multiple companies
competing for their business. This is not only confusing to the
prospect; it can leave them paralyzed with indecision. It’s important to have a strategy for sales
to reach out to the prospect. The right sales strategy with a strong sales automation platform
will ensure that the right sales rep reaches out to the prospect at the right time with the right
message.
Stage 3: Decision
The final stage is where products have been evaluated and the buyer chooses a solution to
solve their problem.
• 70% of buying experiences are based on how the prospect feels they are being
treated. (Source: McKinsey)
Winning the customer comes down to more than price and product; it comes down to
comfort, trust, and relationship. Content can build credibility, marketing can nurture that
interest, but it is people-to-people interaction that builds trust and relationships.
Marketing automation alone can do a good job of supporting a prospect in the first stage of
the buying process. SEO, social media, website content, lead nurturing emails, visitor activity
tracking (white paper downloads, webinar registrations, free trial signups, etc.), and various
other types of automated outreach provide many ways for prospects to become aware of
solutions and help them begin to research each type of solution. It also helps marketers know
who is interested in the company’s offerings. Where marketing automation alone can fail is in
steps 2 and 3. Sure, you can provide a free trial of your product or service; however, without
sales follow up, you won’t know if the prospect is fully using and understanding everything your
solution has to offer. Without sales intervention, you have also left that decision maker as the
potentially lone champion in his or her organization. A great sales process ensures a sales rep
engages with qualified prospects as a trusted advisor.
Just as marketing automation alone can’t effectively close deals, sales automation alone can’t
necessarily generate the volume of leads your team needs to fill the pipeline. That’s where
marketing comes in. If you place the burden of awareness and content creation on sales, there
will be less time for building relationships and closing deals. The answer is implementing a
system that merges the sales and marketing processes and platforms together.
7. 7
Working Together
The perfect marriage of marketing automation and sales automation essentially boils down
to preparing the prospect for an informed and well-timed call from a sales representative.
Let’s review what a cold call is, what makes a cold call warm, and the role and limitations of
sales automation in the cold call process compared to the role and limitations of marketing
automation.
Contrary to popular belief, sales automation doesn’t make
a cold call warm or a warm lead hot. It can contact a cold
lead, warm lead, or hot lead, but it is not a system that
automatically gathers information to move a lead from cold
to warm. It simply facilitates the process of making calls
efficiently regardless of the lead’s status. Advanced sales
platforms do provide lead scoring and routing to prevent
cherry picking, however, the status of the lead comes from
the data gathered during research or lead qualification.
Bring marketing automation into the mix with sales
automation, and you can see better results in reaching
prospects and closing sales.
Marketing
Hand-off
Sales
Awareness
Evaluation
Decision
Sales and marketing
align buyer persona
Marketing engages
buyer with content
Marketing educates buyer
with content
Sales qualies buyer
Marketing provides sales with
collateral support
Sales converts buyer
8. 8
WITHOUT
Marketing Automation
WITH
Marketing Automation
COLD CALL
WARMER HOT CALLHOT CALL
WARMER WARM CALLWARM CALL
WARMER COLD CALL
You are calling a lead from a purchased opt-in list. Nothing
is known about his needs, timeline, budget, or interests.
He is not expecting your call and nothing is known about
his engagement with your industry, product, service, or
company.
This is a completely blind call. It requires a broad opening
and bit of guesswork. This call opens with a lack of
knowledge and understanding about the person being called
and leads to the prospect being guarded and impatient.
You are calling a lead from a purchased opt-in list. Nothing
is known about his needs, timeline, or budget. You do know
that he has opened an email you recently sent and visited
several pages on your website around a particular product.
This call is intentional, informed, and purposeful. You are
simply following up on his interest around the product he
has spent time researching on your site and to see what is
driving that interest. This conveys an understanding and
insight to the prospects about their need and can make the
prospect more comfortable and open to talk.
You are following up on lead that was called six months
ago by another salesperson. You know very little about her
needs, timeline, budget, or interests. She is not expecting
your call and her recent engagement with your industry,
product, service, and company is unknown.
This call opens with a “just checking in” approach, hoping that
something might have changed in the last six months. Again,
she may feel like a number in rotation and immediately shut
down.
You are following up on lead that was called six months
ago by another salesperson. You know very little about her
needs, timeline, or budget. You do know that she visited
a page on your website about a specific product a month
ago, and recently downloaded white paper about that same
product.
Again, this call has more intention and purpose. You know
she was looking six months ago, and now you know she is
still looking and engaged in specific content on your site.
You’re following up about the white paper to see if she has
any questions about the content, addressing that she was
looking six months ago and asking what’s been the biggest
issue in finding a solution. So many approaches can be taken
with these insights.
You are calling a prospect that recently filled out an online
form requesting information about your company’s product
or service. You know nothing about his needs, timeline, or
budget. He is expecting your call.
Even though the prospect is directly reaching out and
requesting a call, trust still needs to be gained. You don’t
know if you are the first company he’s contacted, or if he
is just bouncing around filling out multiple forms without
reading anything on the companies before requesting
information. In either case, the first few minutes are spent
trying to connect with the prospect while also trying to
determine if he is an appropriate fit for your product or
service.
You are calling a prospect that recently filled out an online
form requesting information about your company’s product
or service. You know nothing about his needs, timeline, or
budget. He is expecting your call. You also know that he
originally visited your site the previous week and visited
several pages around a particular topic. He came back
to visit those same pages before filling out the form, and
then downloaded a white paper on the same topic after
submitting the form.
You go into this call with a better idea of how serious the
prospect is, and you know that he’s spent time on your site
and read your content. This gives you insight into specifically
what he may be looking for and that his inquiry is intentional
and he specifically has interest in your company. This makes
a first impression that immediately builds trust in you and
your company, and you can build an immediate loyalty to
give you an edge over any conversations he might have with
competitors.
9. 9
Marketing automation gives deeper insight into a prospect’s behavior to make a call warmer.
It provides more information to a sales rep to approach the prospect in a more thoughtful,
understanding way.
Marketing automation does not build personal relationships. It informs and engages the
prospect in your product or service. It can take a prospect and nurture it with relevant
information based on previous interactions with your company, product, or service online.
Its limitations? It can only nurture prospects to the point where prospects are ready to reach
out to the company on their own. This is where the need for sales/sales automation steps
in. Combined, marketing automation and sales automation give the salesperson insight
that makes the relationship building process more effective.
This also allows a company to define the point at which sales
should contact prospects. You can develop a lead management
methodology that uses marketing automation data to trigger
your sales automation system at the right time for a sales call.
The marriage of both systems lets you determine the point when
sales has enough information to make the cold, warm, or hot
calls more productive.
Closing
Today’s sales and marketing organization faces a plethora of
automation options that address various stages of the sales
funnel. With all these available options, it can be a daunting
task to find the right solution mix that appropriately addresses
the needs of both sales and marketing. With the increasing
attention paid to marketing automation solutions, it is easy to understand why some
organizations assume it’s a cure-all for issues related to marketing lead generation and sales
lead management. However, attention to filling the funnel with more leads without
providing appropriate lead management tools to the sales team
is akin to making the sales team drink from a fire hose. Best-
in-class sales and marketing teams should implement the right
mix of marketing automation and sales automation to ensure
that sales and marketing alignment can be attained to maximize
revenue.
10. 10
About VanillaSoft
VanillaSoft is the industry’s leading sales
automation software for sales by phone. Our
intuitive and easy-to-use queue-based software
for inside sales takes the best of CRM, lead
management and telemarketing applications
to create the most productive phone sales
environment available today.
VanillaSoft’s core philosophy and development
process is centered on one concept: The
Power of Simplicity. It is through this principle
that VanillaSoft offers a queue-based platform
that allows our customers to see increased
productivity, higher contact rates, deeper list
penetration, greater management control over
the sales process, better sales accountability
tools, and a faster speed to lead like no other.
Learn more about how your organization can
benefit from VanillaSoft by contacting us today.
Call: (866) 763 - 8826
Email: sales@vanillasoft.com
Website: www.vanillasoft.com
Blog: blog.vanillasoft.com
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