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Abstract

ss falls into the marketing process. <a href="https://readmedium.com/5-things-you-can-learn-from-marketing-trailblazers-a40131e6c140">Great marketers</a> know that marketing is changing, and marketing is taking a bigger part of the sales cycle.</p><h1 id="aab8">The Rise of Content Marketing</h1><p id="5149">With a large buying committee in the B2B world, marketing is more like sales because marketing needs to educate the buyers before they are ready to buy. <a href="https://readmedium.com/5-things-you-can-learn-from-marketing-trailblazers-a40131e6c140">Marketing trailblazers</a> know that the most important thing marketers can do is to better educate potential customers and increase the productivity of their sales teams.</p><p id="7994">This is why content marketing is at the heart of marketing today.</p><p id="72f9">For example, look at <a href="https://www.thesaleslion.com/meet-the-sales-lion/meet-marcus-2/">Marcus Sheridan</a>, one of the earliest adopters of <a href="https://knowledgeenthusiast.com/2012/11/25/a-to-z-guide-content-marketing/">content marketing</a>. He is known for his <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/business/smallbusiness/increasing-sales-by-answering-customers-questions.html">revolutionary marketing strategy of answering his customers’ questions</a>. The companies who “get” content marketing answer questions that people are asking. They do so through their content.</p><p id="7e86">For example, a potential customer of the cloud-based work management software company Upland Software <a href="https://uplandsoftware.com/kapost/resources/blog/sales-and-marketing-alignment/">asked them about how to solve one of their content problems</a>. Marketing quickly answered the question in a blog post, advancing the sales cycle with the prospect. According to <a href="https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics">HubSpot</a>, the most common measurement of success for content marketing programs is total sales.</p><h1 id="43c2">The Crucial Role of Sales Enablement</h1><p id="6da0">Besides content marketing, successful marketers are wearing the sales enablement “hat.” The best marketers are enabling their salespeople to have meaningful and insightful conversations. Their goal: to make sure salespeople have successful conversati

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ons on the first call or virtual meeting. According to <a href="https://corporatevisions.com/cvi-perspectives-why-your-pipeline-problem-is-actually-a-conversation-problem/">Corporate Visions</a>, 74% of buyers choose the sales representative who was the<i> first</i> to add value and insight.</p><p id="1f11">By answering questions for their customers and prospects, effective marketers can help their sales teams with content. This content can be used to follow up after a first call or virtual meeting. Marketers make sure their sales teams<i> actually </i>use the content they work hard to produce.</p><p id="8272">According to <a href="https://go.forrester.com/blogs/its-not-content-its-a-lack-of-buyer-insights-thats-the-problem/">Forrester</a>, 60–70% of the content produced by B2B companies goes unused. Successful marketers make sure their sales team uses their content, so it doesn’t sit in the company portal or on their website. Sales teams have made using the content part of their daily routine.</p><p id="d004">The best marketers know the power of feedback, especially from sales and customers. Their feedback can help with data enrichment and messaging decisions. This helps marketing create better attention-getting content.</p><p id="5a15">Top-notch content generates more leads. This also helps marketers make better decisions about pricing, packaging of products and services, and better define their target audience.</p><h1 id="c21b">Bringing It All Together</h1><p id="bf8d">Marketing is now sales. Marketers are now tasked with building meaningful relationships with their customers. The best marketers empower their sales teams with tools, context, and insights on how to best help their customers.</p><p id="01c9">Marketing is now responsible for selling the business by facilitating relationship building that’s at the heart of marketing and sales. Marketing must take a unifier mindset where it works collaboratively with all areas of the company, especially sales, to drive growth.</p><p id="0077">If I really think about it, I’m actually in the right profession since marketing is becoming sales and I’m a salesperson at heart. Marketing hasn’t reaped the benefits like sales, but marketing hasn’t been assigned a sales quota either.</p></article></body>

Marketing Is Now Sales, So Get Used to It, Marketers

Marketing doesn’t have a sales quota, but it’s trending that way

Sometimes I wonder if I’m in the wrong profession. Our top salesperson gets a Rolex watch at the end of the year. What do I get? Nothing.

I’m not complaining, I know my role. I’m not the Michael Jordan. I’m the John Paxton who hits the three-pointer at the end of the game to win the NBA championship.

A lot of companies are sales-driven. And they should be.

What is often overlooked is that marketing makes the engine of a company purr. It’s not sales. They are the face men/women. Marketing people are the doers and the people who make things happen.

You can use the analogy that marketing is behind the scenes, making sure everything goes smoothly. It’s like the producer of TV news shows. The only one who is seen and gets all the credit is the on-air talent. People don’t know who the producers are.

Marketing is in a great spot. But things are changing. Marketing is becoming more like sales, and I’m not sure that marketers are 100% ready.

Why Is Marketing Now Sales?

More of the sales process is happening before our top sales rep talks to a person at an interested company. According to Gartner, 57% of the buying journey is done before a sales representative is involved.

In the business to business (B2B) world, Gartner says a typical buying group involves six to ten decision makers‚ each consuming four to five pieces of content independently about a complex solution.

The bulk of the workload of the sales process falls into the marketing process. Great marketers know that marketing is changing, and marketing is taking a bigger part of the sales cycle.

The Rise of Content Marketing

With a large buying committee in the B2B world, marketing is more like sales because marketing needs to educate the buyers before they are ready to buy. Marketing trailblazers know that the most important thing marketers can do is to better educate potential customers and increase the productivity of their sales teams.

This is why content marketing is at the heart of marketing today.

For example, look at Marcus Sheridan, one of the earliest adopters of content marketing. He is known for his revolutionary marketing strategy of answering his customers’ questions. The companies who “get” content marketing answer questions that people are asking. They do so through their content.

For example, a potential customer of the cloud-based work management software company Upland Software asked them about how to solve one of their content problems. Marketing quickly answered the question in a blog post, advancing the sales cycle with the prospect. According to HubSpot, the most common measurement of success for content marketing programs is total sales.

The Crucial Role of Sales Enablement

Besides content marketing, successful marketers are wearing the sales enablement “hat.” The best marketers are enabling their salespeople to have meaningful and insightful conversations. Their goal: to make sure salespeople have successful conversations on the first call or virtual meeting. According to Corporate Visions, 74% of buyers choose the sales representative who was the first to add value and insight.

By answering questions for their customers and prospects, effective marketers can help their sales teams with content. This content can be used to follow up after a first call or virtual meeting. Marketers make sure their sales teams actually use the content they work hard to produce.

According to Forrester, 60–70% of the content produced by B2B companies goes unused. Successful marketers make sure their sales team uses their content, so it doesn’t sit in the company portal or on their website. Sales teams have made using the content part of their daily routine.

The best marketers know the power of feedback, especially from sales and customers. Their feedback can help with data enrichment and messaging decisions. This helps marketing create better attention-getting content.

Top-notch content generates more leads. This also helps marketers make better decisions about pricing, packaging of products and services, and better define their target audience.

Bringing It All Together

Marketing is now sales. Marketers are now tasked with building meaningful relationships with their customers. The best marketers empower their sales teams with tools, context, and insights on how to best help their customers.

Marketing is now responsible for selling the business by facilitating relationship building that’s at the heart of marketing and sales. Marketing must take a unifier mindset where it works collaboratively with all areas of the company, especially sales, to drive growth.

If I really think about it, I’m actually in the right profession since marketing is becoming sales and I’m a salesperson at heart. Marketing hasn’t reaped the benefits like sales, but marketing hasn’t been assigned a sales quota either.