For better or worse, the Internet has fundamentally changed the world of sales and marketing forever. Sales no longer governs the flow of information in the buying process, the consumer does. If a person has a question about a product or service, they simply search the Internet for their answer and obtain it instantly without the company ever knowing.
This is where the world of “Inbound Marketing” was born. The term refers to a system that generates valuable, consumer-focused content that visitors can’t help but want to engage with. This content is used to attract leads to your business because promotion-driven methods no longer appeal to today’s savvy consumer.
The most significant outcome …show more content…
The role of inbound marketing is to develop the high-quality content that will attract the right leads and deliver them at the right time to the sales team.
Here are some ways marketing can strengthen the sales process:
• Educate Prospects – The content that the marketing team develops and distributes will create better-informed leads more ready and willing to make a purchase decision, and will develop authority and trust in your brand. The sales team may also be hearing the same questions from leads repeatedly and spending valuable time educating potential customers when they should be focusing on nurturing the lead and closing the sale. Marketing can take this feedback from sales and use it to create blog posts, FAQ pages or eBooks to empower the consumer with more information and streamline the buying process.
• Qualify Prospects – Marketing should understand the buying process of prospective clients. We call this the buyer’s journey which is made up of three essential stages that each consumer goes through during their buying process: awareness, consideration, decision. The role of inbound marketers is to have insight into what information the consumer needs at each sage of the buyer’s journey. This information is then passed on to the sales team so they can engage qualified leads with better understanding of the prospect’s unique needs, priorities …show more content…
Sales can help marketing refine their lead generation and qualification process by giving feedback about which leads made it furthest along in the sales process and why.
Here are some questions for marketing to ask the sales team:
• Which specific marketing offers that a prospect engages with signify a strong or weak lead? Are leads more likely to become customers if they received a free consultation or attended a webinar? Ask the sales team which types of conversion events they like to see when they are prioritizing their leads.
• Do leads typically have the right expectations about what you offer? The message that marketing sends with content should be crystal clear. If the lead is unaware of why the rep is reaching out to them, perhaps your calls-to-action are unclear. If the lead had misunderstood what your company does and the services they provide, perhaps a blog was misleading or a landing page needs a