As TechTarget prepares to hold its mid-year sales meetings, this marks the time when TechTarget along with countless numbers of companies in the B2B technology space takes stock of what its successes have been to date and rolls out the plan to attack the back half of the year. Much akin to bringing your car in for a tune up, this is the time for sales and marketing to gut check where they are in their respective plans and to make sure they are and remain well-aligned on the goals and objectives of the respective organizations.
In the spirit of reflection and collaboration, here are 4 sales and marketing alignment tips to make sure your teams get on the same page and deliver the highest value to your customers and prospects:
#1 – Turn first half wins into second half gold
Much like you did at the start of 2015, it is time to look back on the successes that drove your business in the first 6 months of the year and apply them to the back half. It is never too late to modify strategies and plans and be opportunistic when it comes to engaging your customers and prospects now.
#2 – Keep sharing and socializing content with your sales teams
As technology marketers, our customers are our #1 audience, but a close second is our sales teams. If your sales teams don;t understand the value proposition you are putting forth with content, how do you expect your customers and prospects to? Keep marketing your content to your sales teams so they can better crystallize the pitch and become your most direct channel to your customer base.
#3 – Get the lead handover process right
Your organization can’t afford for sales and marketing not to be on the same page around lead definition and lead handover. According to CSO Insights, only 50% of marketing and sales teams agree on a the definition of a lead and misalignment in this area can cost organizations 10% or more in lost revenue per year. This is a number that senior management certainly cannot be happy about, so its time for sales and marketing to spend the time to get this right to improve the lead handover process and continue driving opportunities for the organization.
#4 – Help your sales force be more intelligence-driven to better serve the needs of buyers
With more information on solutions and vendors readily available to them, buyers are more informed than ever and their first priority is self-education. They no longer rely on a sales rep to learn about your company and its solutions. When they are ready to talk, it is critical that sales reps can deliver value based on what the buyers needs are without having to ask. Therefore, sales teams must arm themselves with better intelligence about the activity and behavior of buyers to hone the pitch and ensure that first conversation between parties is productive. Marketers must do everything in their power to make sure any usable intelligence gets into their sales reps workflows.
We would love to hear what kind of strategies you put in place to ensure sales and marketing alignment as you move towards the second half of 2015. Feel free to leave a comment or connect with me on Twitter or LinkedIn.
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