.webp)
Selling effectively is truly an art form, and it takes time and intentionality to master. Not to mention that in any industry, working in sales doesn’t look the same as it did in decades past.
And this is a good thing! New and emerging sales methods invite the opportunity for sellers to use their business’s internal marketing materials in more intentional and creative ways. So how could your business be using its marketing materials more effectively?
1. Think of Your Team as Advisors, Rather Than Sales Representatives
If you are first thinking of selling something for the sake of making a sale, you won’t be effective with connecting and providing honest value to your customers. So, take a moment and think about how you and your sales team would function if they thought of themselves first as consultants or advisors, rather than just “sales reps”. This then puts one in the position to truly act as a point contact for customers, providing value, knowledge, and suitable suggestions right off the bat.
2. Study Your Buyer’s Journey
Having an idea of the buyer’s journey is an important part of creating an overall effective sales strategy for your team. Customers looking to make a significant purchase from your business typically go through three main stages on their journey:
- Awareness: The customer recognizes a need or problem.
- Comprehension: The customer begins to research solutions.
- Action: The customer identifies a solution.
Sales teams can use various internal marketing materials to attract qualified leads and then guide them throughout the buyer’s journey to ultimately make a purchase. This kind of methodology is the opposite of outbound marketing, which requires sales teams to reach out to potential sales leads who may or may not be ready to buy. This leads us right to our next point…
3. Use Your Current Internal Resources, and Be Creative
Many businesses already have marketing materials already on hand that they can use to sell their product or service more effectively. Think of your business's blog, for example. Website visitors can read your blogs and be enticed by your call-to-actions and make a buying decision. But what about potential sales leads your sellers are currently in contact with? Links to blogs and other premium content are great additions to add to follow-up emails with sales leads, to provide value and connection with your contacts. And if you currently put effort towards this kind of content on your website, now might be a great time to see how you can tailor and improve upon it to better serve your sales team and customers alike.
On the other hand, maybe your business could benefit from having these internal marketing materials in order to establish your brand, solidify your digital presence and strategically sell your product to potential customers at an increased rate. No matter where your business might find itself in regards to having these kinds of materials on hand, we are here to tell you that an inbound marketing strategy might be your best bet to arm your sellers with the best materials to attract, engage, and delight potential customers.
Inbound marketing allows businesses the opportunity to create the kind of content that speaks to consumers in each stage of the buyer’s journey stages. Here are content elements that you will likely find in inbound marketing strategies that are great marketing materials for your sales team to utilize to sell your products and/or services more effectively:
- Blog Materials: As we mentioned, sending links to various blogs that speak on a specific topic you know will connect with and help the particular lead you are working with is a great way to build trust.
- Premium Content Offers: These robust content offerings, such as eBooks, are typically gated content, which means leads must submit their information in order to receive a complimentary, downloadable copy of this content. This is a great way to provide in-depth value and education all the while gathering contact information to store in your database.
- Product/Service One-Sheets: These kinds of materials can take many different forms. For example, sellers can use one-sheet profiles or digital “resumes” that can be accessed via URL on your company website, while also being printable. This is a great way to interact with sales leads on a more personal level.
Or, many businesses benefit from having one-sheet pages that provide a detailed overview of a particular product or service as an effective introduction for potential customers in the Awareness and Comprehension stages that your sales team is in contact with.
Need More Quality Leads? Adopt a Strategic Inbound Marketing System
We wouldn’t recommend these methods if we think they wouldn’t work. All the suggestions we have discussed above are all tactics our team at fuze32 use regularly and see quality results from. We know the power of an effective inbound marketing strategy, and if you think your business could benefit from stepping up its inbound and content marketing game, we would love to meet with you to see how our team could partner with your team to help you reach your specific goals and objectives. Contact our team today, or subscribe to our blog to receive weekly content like this delivered directly to your inbox!
