Many organizations underestimate the power of content when it comes to boosting sales conversions. With the right content metrics in place, your sales team will be better prepared to tackle – and close – a lead successfully.
They’ll be more informed of what potential customers want and will be able to reach out at the perfect time to maximize their success rate. Here are three ways that your sales team can work with your content team to increase conversions.
1. Using Content To Understand A Customer’s Wants And Needs
Your prospects won’t always inform your reps about everything they want. It’s up to your reps to figure that out themselves.
They must be extremely well-informed about a specific opportunity before going to a sales meeting. Without understanding their prospect’s needs, desires and interests, they won’t be able to make a convincing pitch and move towards a close.
Your content team can assist your sales team here. Using analytical data over the kind of content a prospect has interacted with in the past, they’ll be better positioned to understand them.
For example, Mike Montague, VP of Online Learning & Development at Sandler, points out that you can measure “gated content like whitepapers, webinars and other offers that require you to register.”
Your web analytics tool, such as Google Analytics, will allow you to see what content a specific prospect has consumed.
They’ll be able to track the topics they’ve engaged with and relay this information to your sales team. Your sales team can then structure their meeting with this in mind to make a more compelling pitch.
For example, if your product is a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool and your prospect seems to be interacting with content covering the call logs feature, your sales rep can highlight this feature in the sales call.
This ensures that the meeting stays relevant and only focuses on what the customer is interested in. It’s no longer a generic presentation – it’s a pitch tailor-made for the prospect!
2. Using Content To Evaluate The Perfect Time To Pitch To A Customer
Outside sales is an extremely time-consuming process. You can’t afford to send your reps to prospects who aren’t primed for a pitch.
Reach out too early and your lead may not be ready to commit. Reach out too late and they may have moved on to a competitor.
So how do you identify the right time to pitch to a prospect?
With your content metrics.
Your content team can identify the stage a prospect is at through the resources they’re interacting with. Your sales team can also view these content metrics and decide if they should go ahead and pitch.
Has your prospect signed up for a newsletter?
Don’t pitch yet. They’re still a long way from being an SQL (sales qualified lead).
Did they view a product whitepaper?
That’s a good sign. They’re showing interest. However, they’re still not ready for a pitch.
Did they view a product demo video?
Perfect! This would be a good prospect to reach out to.
Therefore, using content can be a great way to ensure your reps only reach out to qualified prospects!
3. Using Sales Insights To Create More Relevant Content
Getting your sales team to work with your content team is a mutually beneficial exercise. Your sales team has ample opportunities to help your content team as well.
Create More Relevant Content
To create content that truly resonates with your audience, your content team needs to develop an in-depth understanding of their needs.
No one understands your audience better than your sales team. So why not take advantage of that? Ask your sales team to regularly relay any in-meeting insights they find about prospects to your content team.
For example, if your product is Human Resources software, your sales team might discover that your audience wants to know more about the latest trends in performance management of remote employees. Armed with this information, your content team can create articles, ebooks or webinars around this particular topic.
Improved Lead Nurturing Emails
Additionally, your sales team can also help your content team to customize the lead nurturing process. After a sales meeting, a sales rep can help your content team to add specific interest-related tags to a particular account in your marketing automation software.
When you do this, any future lead-nurturing content that account receives will be specific to their interests. In the above example, if you already have content on remote team performance management, tag that account so that they receive newsletter emails with links to articles or ebooks on that topic.
This will ensure that any future content a prospect receives will be in-line with what they’re truly interested in.
Aligning your sales and content processes is one of the best things you could do for both departments. With sound content insights, your sales reps will now find it easier to ace sales meetings and convert lead opportunities.
Check out this post to learn how you can utilize data to increase sales conversions!
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