How to Scale Up: Synergize Outbound Sales and Marketing
Whether you're a content newbie or king, learn how outbound sales can offer valuable contributions to marketing and vice-versa.
By Amy Ingraham on July 22, 2019
If you’re trying to scale up your B2B SaaS, outbound sales are key. Some of the most powerful software companies in the world, including inbound-king Hubspot, have rapidly scaled up by creating seamless, personalized, and effective outbound plans.
This is the fifth and last piece in a series of five articles breaking down common problems seen in SaaS. Check out the post below to find out if your product needs outbound sales to come out on top.
Sales and Marketing Aren’t Working Together.
Content King
Ok, so your content game is on point, and you’re putting out quality ebooks like nobody’s business. You’ve got a clear message that’s easy to digest for end-users. Perfect, you’ve won more than half of the battle.
In fact, 61% of B2B consumers consider high-quality content a winning factor when choosing a vendor. However, where does that content come into play for your sales team?
Chances are 80% of the content you’re producing is only being used by the marketing team. When sales and marketing work together, you get a clearer picture of consumer concerns, desires, and outlook.
Consistent, specialized messaging arms your team with the perfect pitch and relevant information they need to snag increasingly savvy buyers.
When sales and marketing work together, you get a clearer picture of consumer concerns, desires, and outlook.
Aaron Ross said it best, “It’s easier to tighten your targeting and to make your messaging more specific to your customers than it is to change your product or your company.”Monitoring and analyzing the evolution of your pitches provide deeper consumer understanding for both the sales and marketing teams.
Content Newbie
On the flip side, maybe you aren’t producing quality content yet, and you’re still trying to nail down your messaging. Outbound sales is the forefront for both customer feedback and content ideas.
To become thought leaders in your market, you’ll need to produce the most relevant content possible. What could be more suitable than ideas straight from the consumer’s mouth?
In 2017, Drift took the bold move of removing all forms from their website in-lieu of human contact via chat or call. Opening up direct lines between the customer and the sales team allows for conversational marketing.
CEO David Cancel suggests, “By implementing conversational marketing, companies open up a real-time lead generation channel to instantly connect qualified leads with reps.” Drift’s sales team is their non-stop connection to the customer, and they consistently publish killer content.
The Fix
Direct, conversational marketing connects with your consumer on a deeper level. Eventually, your team of sales development reps will become the most dynamic customer experts in your company.
As your outbound team quickly gathers insights about customers’ unique needs and preferences, you can use this data to deliver solutions while making a meaningful connection.
Outbound sales teams should relay pertinent information to marketing just as much as the contrary. The marketing team has a crucial perspective on content creation and extensive industry knowledge. Any marketing messaging that is distributed to consumers should also be shared and incorporated into the messaging of the sales team.
The Takeaway: When sales and marketing are communicating about consistent messaging, pitching, and content, everyone is working smarter.
