Tip 7: Showcase your sales rep's expertise.
Sales people rely on Marketing to develop and post content - blogs and social media. However, with some effort in collaboration, the team work between these two groups can be even more powerful.
Since sales people need to focus on building, managing and closing their pipeline, they shouldn't be expected to write blog posts. Marketing can help promote the sales person's expertise by drafting blog posts in the name of the sales person to help build their credibility (always obtain their approval on the final draft since it's going in their name!).
To start, below are a few topic examples Marketing can use to approach a Sales Rep:
Blog Title Ideas
Ask the sales rep for the top 5 most frequently asked questions
Draft a blog post for each (that's 5 new pieces of content per rep for your website, social channels and later for re-purposing.
Have sales rep review, option to edit and final approval
Four Reasons Why Customers Say They Work with Me
Outline their value proposition, sales rep's mantra, customer experience he/she partners with a prospect from beginning to end with that rep
Emphasize the sales rep (that's ultimately who the customer is choosing to do business with, the company/brand is secondary)
Do you prefer value or price?
Making decisions on price are budget driven, not business driven and lead to short term success but you'll get a lower cost (but for how long until you need to re-invest in something else that ends up costing you a lot more than the higher value option from the beginning)
Making decisions on value may cost a premium but look at what you get as a result including a longer term investment without the need to go through the process again
Are your sales reps active on social media? If so, help them by feeding them new data, research, product information, etc that they can post on their individual social channel. Reinforce need to @ your brand and recommend hashtags to use on each post, when applicable. Also provide them with links (short links like bitly.com) for tracking purposes and any images to go with their posts.
By handing them what they need, you are building your relationship, providing content that's getting additional exposure beyond what Marketing is doing and the collaboration between the two teams begins creating new opportunities to help each other work together more cohesively.
What experience do you have collaborating with Marketing or Sales - and what was the outcome? Comment below!
NEXT on the reading list: "Blue Ocean" Leads