Inbound marketing doesn’t just affect the materials your company puts out, but the way you sell, too.In order to successfully implement inbound campaigns, you’ll need to get your sales department on board and teach them new ways of operating. Use the following tips to help set your sales team up for inbound marketing:
Change Their Mindset
Salespeople need to switch from the idea of pushing products and services to helping and informing prospects to move them further along the sales process. Rather than pre-planned, cookie-cutter pitches, a salesperson should cater to individual needs and truly listen so they can address specific pain points and truly connect on a more personal level.
Inbound doesn’t fully negate sales preparation, however, but rather changes the strategy. Talking points should be centered around a lead’s digital behavior, factoring in what content types are being consumed to get a better idea of where a lead is and what information they’re most interested in.
Establish Lead Ownership Guidelines
Inbound marketing can save your sales team time by ensuring the leads they talk to are ready to converse with them. By only contacting prospects who have reached a certain stage in the buyer’s journey, sales departments can better focus on qualified leads instead of chatting up every opportunity that comes their way.
For this to occur, your company must determine what makes a prospect sales-ready and which signs mean that a contact needs more nurturing from marketing. One such way to carry this out is by utilizing a lead-scoring system based on online activity regarding your business’s website and social media profiles.
Make the Most of Your Tools
With new processes come new technologies. It’s important that your sales department fully understand any tools being added to their digital arsenal so they can utilize them accurately. Make sure to thoroughly train your sales reps on how to use technologies that are part of your inbound marketing methods.
In addition to learning the ins and outs of electronic resources such as a CRM, salespeople must also commit to applying that knowledge in their day to day tasks. New and detailed data should always be entered into the shared CRM. This will help both the individual salesperson for referencing in future communications and the marketing department as they can see what conversations are being had related to materials and whether they’ve been effective in qualifying leads as sales-ready.
Inbound marketing provides a wide array of benefits, but you’ll need to get your sales team ready first. Another important aspect of implementing inbound is making sure your marketing partner has a thorough understanding of how sales works. HeadsUp specializes in sales enablement, meaning we take care of all your inbound needs while keeping the needs of your sales department top of mind. Reach out to our Marietta marketers today to see how we can help your business grow!