3 SMarketing related questions every Inbound Marketer needs to ask
Posted on Tue, Jan 24, 2012
All too often with small and medium sized business marketers I see a significant disconnect with their sales department. Of course in most instances this dichotomy isn't necessarily the fault of either the sales department or the marketing department. Many times it is a natural phenomenon created because one department is responsible for closing business and the other is in charge of generating leads. The concept of a shared goal can get lost - especially when business in not booming.
One way to avoid this painful finger pointing exercise is to embrace the concept of SMarketing. SMarketing isn't a revolutionary idea but it does aim to bring both the sales and marketing departments closer together - working for a unified goal. SMarketing can take many forms but a good place to start is a weekly meeting between the two departments where numbers can be crunched, wins can be shared, and challenges can be brainstormed around.
If your company hasn't embraced SMarketing yet here are some questions that you as an inbound marketer should be able to answer. If you aren't able to then maybe your first step is to reach acorss the aisle and start bridging the gap.
1) How does our sales team qualify leads and prospects? So much of a marketers time is spent generating leads it can be difficult take a step back and simply ask what happens after someone becomes a lead? Does the lead receive a phone call, is their a script used, do they receive an email, how many emails are sent, etc? By understanding what sales does, and what works, you will have an advantage as you configure new offers as well as new lead nurturing campaigns.
2) What is the sales team's opinion of the best and worst leads produced? You worked hard, generated some killer content, engaged prospects on your website, and produced a bunch of tasty looking leads. We can assume that the leads requesting a demo are your best but what if you don't offer a demo? What if you have 5 whitepaper downloads as well as a few eBook offers? Salespeople will often segment their leads by the offer that originally converted them - so their input or perceptions of what is good and what is bad in relation to the offer they converted is extremely valuable. Of course you should be tracking all of this with some sort of closed loop marketing software but if you aren't you need answers!
3) What are the top 5 qustions prospects ask salespeople during the sales process? This is one of my favorites. Not only because the answers will provide great insight into the gaps in your content but the answers to this question will also enable you to create at least 5 blog posts where you answer those very questions. Chances are if your leads are asking the salespeople these questions they are asking the search engines as well. In that case you need to start getting found first.
If you feel like the chasm between your marketing and sales departments is too wide than I would start asking these questions immediately. They won't change the landscape of your company overnight but I believe they have an amazing ability to unify people under a common goal. What is that common goal you may ask - I would start with world domination - always a safe bet.