- May 14, 2015
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Enlist Your Content Commandos to Win the Battle for Relevance
They’re probably hunkered down right now, devising strategy and tactics, and plotting their next offensive. Your mission: walk down the hall and commission them into marketing.
We’re talking about your sales force, of course.
The intrepid elite who courageously man the front lines of commerce each day, gathering information and intelligence that can add more firepower to your integrated marketing.
Time to Lock and Load
In the military, commandos carry out surprise raids on enemy encampments. Similarly, integrating sales’ deep knowledge of your industry, solutions and competitors can help you
catch the opposition off guard, by turning your team’s insight in to highly targeted and relevant content.
A recent Website Magazine (WM) article affirms this idea, suggesting that the sales team’s time in the trenches make them your marketing ace-in-the-hole — your secret weapon in the battle to win (and retain) customers with content.
“Sales teams have a unique relationship and a special depth to their understanding of current and potential clients,” the article says. “The specific insights sales teams can offer… make them a key voice… when discussing B2B website design.”
Here’s how sales has earned its stripes as your ‘content commandos’ — credible authorities who know better than most what customers want and expect from your company and its marketing:
- Empathy. Experienced sales people instinctively view your company and brand through your customers’ eyes. Years of 1:1 conversations and presentations enable sales pros to understand prospects’ fears, concerns and behaviors.
- Insight. Years of fielding questions in calls and presentations give sales a kind of sixth sense about your customers. They’ve learned what information people need and the level of detail they expect (e.g. charts, case studies, white papers, etc).
- Relationships. WM calls the personal relationships nurtured by sales staff a ‘precious resource’ that can be leveraged to secure often difficult-to-get testimonials, which can then be integrated into other printed and online materials. (Any marketer who’s tried to obtain these customer accolades knows they are golden.)
Like it or not, there’s an all-out battle raging for your prospects’ attention and loyalty. To make content more targeted and relevant, muster your sales staff immediately into the ranks of content creation. Competitors will never see it coming. Once sales is onboard, use these highly effective teamwork tips to help ensure the proper “Care and Feeding of Content Creators.”