Don’t be a fool when it comes to sales and marketing alignment.
April Fools’ Day comes with an inherent warning to be on guard against anyone trying to make you look foolish. Pranks can be funny, but losing money is no laughing matter. So, our extra warning on April Fools’ Day is to make sure your marketing and sales efforts are aligned.
Why? Because buyers are in control now. Everyone does their own research online instead waiting for a salesman to call. Instead of being out hustling for new leads, your salespeople should be closing deals. It’s marketing’s job to bring in qualified leads.
So, your messaging must be compelling and consistent across every touch point that your business has with prospects and customers, including ads, your website, a phone call, and everything in between. If your communications aren’t aligned across all of your marketing and sales efforts, the disconnect slows down your sales cycle. Even worse, a muddled message can even sabotage a potential sale.
That’s why, at The Marketing Blender, we align our clients’ B2B marketing strategy to their sales cycle.
Organizations with tightly aligned sales and marketing functions experience 36% higher customer retention rates and 38% higher sales-win rates, according to a MarketingProfs report.
The first step is to map your B2B sales cycle.
Having a documented, formal roadmap of your ideal sales process gives every member of your sales team the actions and language they need to address objections, close deals and boost customer loyalty.
Start by writing down a complete picture of everything your sales team currently does. You should also document the buying process that your customers go through. Then, you can look for inefficiencies or gaps between the two as you map out the ideal stages of your refined sales process. For help mapping your sales cycle, check out these strategy workshops.
The second step is to craft strong messaging.
A messaging framework is a set of statements that are arranged to convey the problems that a company solves for its customers. Simply put, it is the most compelling language you can use to sell.
Most B2B companies make the mistake of talking about themselves, not their customer. Instead of starting with features and benefits, you should address your prospects needs and pain points.
At The Marketing Blender, we develop a powerful messaging choreography that align our clients’ marketing and sales efforts into one consistent and compelling story. To do so, we follow a proven hierarchy in the form of a messaging funnel. Because how you tell your story dictates how people feel about buying. How you tell is how you sell.
Executing these two steps of mapping your sales cycle and crafting strong messaging will make all of your marketing and sales efforts work harder to drive revenue and growth.
You can read more on how to align your resources here. And the smartest thing you can do today is schedule a discovery call to assess your current efforts.
Blender is a full-service B2B marketing agency focused on accelerating growth for clients in manufacturing, healthcare, software and professional services.
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