Your marketing and sales departments are no longer aligned with the way buyers make purchase decisions.Consider the following facts.
- In 2011, one in four new purchases started with an Internet search.
- 42% of US households report they skip commercials when watching shows on their DVRs.
- It is expected that the 76% of the total population in 2012 will be Internet users.
Think about your own buyer behavior. Do you drive from store to store, talking to sales clerks, looking for the best product? Do you enjoy getting interrupted at your desk with an unsolicited cold call? Do you read direct mail or watch TV commercials? Why would your prospects behave any differently?
The infographic below shows the difference between the traditional marketing and sales departments, and what they currently do vs. what the new revenue department would do to align with the new buyer behavior, drive more leads, and ultimately grow revenue.
From the ashes of that old, divided approach, the revenue department will rise. This team of sales and marketing professionals should focus on understanding the pains, problems, challenges, motivations, and desires of their target market. The marketing folks should be responsible for creating differentiating messaging that appeals to prospects emotionally and rationally. The salespeople should be focused not on selling but on educating, helping, and advising prospects, understanding what they need and supporting them throughout the decision-making process.
The marketing professionals in this new department should create content designed to help target buyers make strong purchase decisions. That content should take the form of tip guides, white papers, and seminars in a variety of formats (e.g., videos, podcasts, e-books, webcasts) to appeal to all learning styles.
The salespeople should stop pushing products and start “guiding” their prospects through the purchase process, asking direct and detailed questions to provide solutions to their specific issues or challenges. Together, your new sales guides should co-create the perfect solution with your prospects.
These sales guides should use the educational materials created by the marketing people to seamlessly support the prospect’s educational process. The stories the marketing team creates for their collateral and tactics are the same stories the sales guides use when they work with prospects directly. In the revenue department, everyone sings from the same song sheet.
The results would be historic, shorter sales cycles, reduced cost, increased efficiencies, higher return on marketing investment, lower cost of sales, increased lead flow, and exponential referrals.
To learn more about how you can start to change marketing at your company, click here to download 9 Steps to Add a Content Marketing Program That Gets You Found and Gets You Leads.
