When it comes to sales, reps are often at the forefront. They’re responsible for moving prospects through the sales pipeline in order to convert them into customers. But while what they do is essential, there’s another team that plays an instrumental role in closing deals: marketing.
From case studies to solution briefs to presentation decks, marketers provide the content and resources sales reps need to navigate buyer interactions successfully. But while this content is critical to sales enablement, the persistent disconnect between sellers and marketers prevents content from being as impactful as it could be.
The Misalignment Between Sales and Marketing
Content misalignment continues to be an issue for sales and marketing teams. According to Allego research, marketers create about four pieces of content for sales reps per month, but 62% of reps say they need more. Additionally, in a study conducted by the Content Marketing Institute, only 39% of respondents agreed that their sales teams use the right content at the right stages in the buyer’s journey.
From these stats, it’s easy to assume lack of communication is the main reason for the disconnect. But the content itself is also a culprit. Marketers don’t have the insight that sales reps possess in order to develop the just-in-time content needed. As a result, reps have no use for the content provided.
An easy fix would be to increase team collaboration, but this isn’t always feasible with marketing and sales being on varying schedules and often in different locations — even more so now in a hybrid world. Marketers need a way to hear the exact messaging from reps that can inform the content they produce. That’s where Conversation Intelligence comes into play.
A Marketer’s Secret Weapon: Conversation Intelligence
Conversation Intelligence (CI) — artificial intelligence-powered technology that records, transcribes and analyzes sales calls — is the solution marketers need to create deal-closing content. In addition to helping sales managers coach their teams, marketers get an inside look into rep and buyer conversations. There, they learn vital insights, such as the exact language buyers use and pain points they face, how reps describe the company’s value proposition and how they handle objections.
Here are a few ways marketing professionals can use CI to tap into insights unearthed from sales calls:
Get Firsthand Feedback from Customers
To arm reps with content for real-world selling situations, marketing professionals must hear real-world selling situations.
CI records seller/buyer interactions, allowing marketers to absorb messaging that resonates with buyers.
In turn, their content becomes more relevant because real customer questions and responses can be addressed within the assets they produce.
Identify Best Practices from Top Performers
Preserving the knowledge of top sales reps has always been necessary, but with The Great Resignation still looming over the workforce, it’s become even more important. CI zeroes in on the best practices, trends and talk tracks top performers use during sales calls, letting marketers create collateral that captures their invaluable insights. These insights can be shared with other reps to learn from, apply to their own customer conversations and close deals — because what works is already identified.
Gain Info on Competitors
As prospects move further down the sales funnel, they’re one step closer to becoming a customer. But before they come to that critical decision, they’re also weighing their options with your competitors. During meetings with reps, they may bring up competitors’ pricing or products. CI can capture precisely what prospects are saying about competitors, allowing marketers to create content that reflects this information. As a result, sellers will come to meetings better prepared to position their product/service against the competition.
The content that marketers produce is essential to sales teams. But misalignment between both groups threatens its impact in multiple ways, including the content itself. CI is a marketing professional’s best bet for creating content that hits the mark with sellers. Once sellers have valuable content, they’ll be better prepared to keep closing deals, and marketers will know they’ve developed deal-winning assets.
Check Out The New Martech Cube Podcast. For more such updates follow us on Google News Martech News
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kevin Beales, Founder & CEO of Refract, an Allego company
Kevin Beales is the founder and CEO of Refract, an Allego company. He is passionate about providing strategic and operational leadership to his team and positioning Refract as an industry leader in its space. Following an early corporate career, he spent the last 15 years at a series of successful tech startups as founder, CEO and part of an early stage management team. In his free time, Kevin enjoys spending time with his three sons and attending Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. games. Kevin is a graduate of Sheffield Hallam University.