Video: Focusing on Content in Marketing and Sales Alignment

If you’re investing in content marketing I’m sure you’ve heard or read about the importance of sales and marketing alignment. I want to talk about how that looks from the sales side.

All too often marketing and sales alignment is looked at as a one-way street with marketing pushing sales to use more of their content. I’ve experienced the impact of content on salesfirsthand, so I completely agree as salespeople we need to leverage content. But real alignment means much more than that.

Sales can use content in three major ways:

  1. We can offer prospects good information and thought leadership, and use the content as an icebreaker to start a conversation
  2. We can help align content to prospect needs to empower them in the buying process
  3. And if someone isn’t ready to buy, add them to a nurturing campaign

Sales teams need to take time to seriously understand the content your marketing team is creating. This will help you understand your prospect and build a relationship with value. If done correctly your relationship can be built on trust and establishing yourself as a resource.

The other aspect of alignment lies in the hands of sales. Your sales team can be the “eyes and ears” for marketing. With a direct line to prospects, sales can help uncover need and express what content is missing or may be needed. They can also provide feedback as to what’s working so you can better strategize and focus on content that your readers want.

Knowing how to leverage content marketing can help make a good salesperson great. But to truly have sales and marketing alignment you need to listen and learn from your sales team to better understand need and close the loop with marketing to produce better content in the future.

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