Your sales team is the tip of the spear. The marketing team’s responsibility is arming your sales team with the tools needed to drive revenue.
In this guide, you’ll learn the steps marketing and sales teams can take to stay in sync resulting in a fully empowered sales force, a completely protected brand, and more revenue.
Make sure your assets are accessible and available.
Marketing teams spend countless hours thoughtfully planning, writing, and designing sales support materials. Many times, these assets go unnoticed and unused because they’re too hard to access. Without clear, easy, instant access to branded assets, sales team members will either spend time looking for materials or creating materials on their own; probably using MS Word or Paint. Shudder.
Let the sales team get personal (but not too personal).
Branded assets carrying personal messages are always more engaging. Many marketing teams already know this and are constantly customizing materials for certain markets or events. However, this approach demands a lot of time and bandwidth. A systematic, growth minded-marketing team needs the ability to allow the sales team to get personal without jeopardizing the brand, meaning pre-approved, templated artwork.
An IDC research study showed that 75% of marketing assets are never used by sales because they can’t be found, are in the wrong format, or are too difficult tocustomize
Mitigate risk.
Depending on your industry, the consequences of noncompliance ranges in severity from a slap on the wrist to hefty federal fines. Sales is not a 9-5 job. If a branded asset changes on Friday and is not updated until Monday, you can be sure that the sales team was out hustling all weekend using the old material. As a result, the marketing team needs to be able to update assets easily and instantly in a single location, ensuring the sales team is constantly using content that is current, approved, and compliant.
Protect your #1 asset.
Sales empowerment can be a very scary space for the marketing team. We get it. Giving anyone outside of marketing absolute freedom to create or personalize assets is the fastest way to dilute your brand. That’s why we’re talking about controlled freedom.
Spend less time onboarding.
Having to wait weeks or months for a new sales rep to generate revenue is something no business can change. What you can change is the process and speed at which your new sales team members can access the tools needed for success. Imagine training materials, forms, stationery, sales tools, and marketing collateral all available in a single location. The sales force is the tip of the spear; ensure they are able to hunt from day one.
According to Forbes, nearly two-thirds (64.8%) of sales professionals’ time is spent on non revenue-generating activities.
Streamline file formatting.
Source files, imagery, logos, videos, etc. These files are constantly requested by sales team members to accommodate different needs - social media requirements, publication specs, and so on. The sales team needs to be able to easily and instantly locate, convert, resize (proportionally, of course), and download files to meet their needs while protecting the brand integrity.
Deliver a stellar user experience.
As a member of the marketing team, I’m certain you’ve had conversations about user experience (UX). The consumer’s interaction with your brand must be fast, intuitive, and visually pleasing. Why aren’t you having these same conversations about your sales team?
The sales team members are the ones who must adopt and implement the material you create. If your sales team is required jump through many hoops to secure sales support materials, nobody wins. The frustrated sales team is not armed with the tools they need and the carefully-crafted marketing assets go underutilized.
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