The separation between the Sales and the Marketing team is often much bigger than it should be, especially when sales can shine if the marketing is done right.
This week on INSIDE Inside Sales, Darryl is joined by one of the foremost authorities on bridging the divide between sales and marketing, Casey Cheshire of Cheshire Impact. Darryl and Casey go over the many ways you can leverage your marketing team to drive greater revenue, such as inviting them to a sales call, giving them feedback on which of their products resonates with your customers and asking marketing to help with nurture campaigns. Learn how you can train your Marketing team to set you up for success on this episode of INSIDE Inside Sales!
- Sales teams and marketing teams often have a contentious relationship. But when they work together, it’s a win-win.
- Marketing strategist Casey Cheshire says you can leverage marketers’ expertise (and their tech) to increase your sales success.
- Casey shares tips on how to “train” your marketing colleagues to refine their messaging, nurture prospects, and send you better leads.
Sales and marketing: To paraphrase George Bernard Shaw, they’re one culture separated by a common language. But sales can shine if marketing is done right, and marketing will flourish through great relationships with their colleagues on the other side of the pond –– er, office.
Casey Cheshire of Cheshire Impact is one of the industry’s foremost authorities on bridging the sales/marketing divide. He is a longtime marketer who has a wealth of sales experience ranging from selling “tuxedos to angry brides at expos” to generating more than $1 million in revenue in a year.
“I’ve been on both sides and I really appreciate both sides,” he says. But he admits that often, sales pros judge or dismiss marketers. He thinks we should see them as resources –– even partners. But of course, relationships need nurturing.
“It’s like how to train your dragon,” he says. But instead of a dragon, you should help your marketing counterparts learn how to help you. Bonus: marketers don’t usually breathe fire.
On this episode of INSIDE Inside Sales, Casey talks about how your marketing team can help you drive revenue, including why you should invite them onto a sales call, how they can help with nurture campaigns, and when to share your wins.
Tell them what you hear
The best way salespeople can leverage marketing colleagues is to “teach them about the customer,” says Casey. “Tell them what you’ve been hearing.”
Marketing teams don’t necessarily get the chance to talk to clients nearly as much as salespeople do so they’ll appreciate your expertise.
“You have so much knowledge on what makes them pick up the phone, what makes them reply to email, and the little trigger points that really get them to shine,” he adds. “Those are gold. Oftentimes marketing doesn’t have access to that, and we need to know.”
And you don’t need to develop a well-defined buyer persona to do it. You can just say something like, hey, you know –– every time I say this, people pay attention.
Then marketers can put that in their messaging too, so they’re more likely to call you back.
Invite them on a call
You can take Casey’s advice a step further and encourage your marketing colleagues to listen in on a phone call.
“Invite them on one or two or three, unless they’re annoying, just invite them on one,” he deadpans.
He remembers “being a fly on the wall for a sales call” in his early days as a marketer that was especially enlightening.
“The first question the prospect asked was, Who are you again and what do you do? And I thought, this is terrible; they’re not a qualified lead. So I set about fixing that. But I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t had a chance to join a call.”
We know what you’re thinking: But how would it help me hit quota?
It’s simple: The more marketers know more about the customer, the better their campaigns. And ultimately, that drives response rates from the people you want to sell to.
Shape the lead
“Tell marketing what a qualified lead looks like to you,” says Casey. “Then they’re going to go out of their way to try to get you more people like that.”
Putting these steps together creates a “feedback loop” that will keep you getting “more softball pitches,” he adds.
Imagine if you didn’t have a funnel full of low-quality leads like passive-interest webinar attendees. If you tell marketers which qualities you want in a lead and give them examples of specific ones who have been responsive, eventually you’ll build a symbiotic relationship.
“It becomes like a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Casey says. So go ahead: Play the long game. By equipping marketers to engage and progress leads, they drive more of them to you.
Harness their tech
Marketing has some pretty cool tech. And in a lot of companies, marketing controls the tech stack overall. So sales teams should investigate whether they can take advantage of what marketing-centric software has to offer.
One way MarTech can drive sales is by tracking and circling back to the people who brush you off with yeah, this sounds fantastic, call me in six months.
Are they just being polite, or will they be ready to buy then?
“The best reps will probably make a reminder for six months or less,” says Casey. But there’s no guarantee that when you call them down the road, they won’t tell you they sped up their initiatives and bought from your competitor three months ago.
“There’s no tacit agreement they need to call you back whenever they get their things done,” he adds. “When they’re not fit to go right now, that’s where marketing can help out with nurturing. That’s where technology comes in … and the best-done tech is where you send little nurturing emails once a month or every so often, which keep you top of mind with your prospect.”
Marketing software can also capture a ton of information on inbound leads, like what they click on, when they open emails, and whether they registered for a webinar but didn’t join it.
Speaking of the latter, that would be a great reason to reach out, says Casey –– Hey, I saw were interested in that webinar but didn’t have a chance to make it. Can I send you a link to the recording?
“There are so many different ways you can leverage all the activity that marketing software is tracking,” he notes. “And they should be able to get that information to you in the CRM.”
Broker a treaty
We get it: Salespeople often think marketing sucks. Well, that the leads suck. But on the flip side, there are things your frenemies in marketing are dying for you to do. They want you to call their leads lickety-split. And they want to know how it turns out.
So “start a little negotiation –– a little peace treaty,” says Casey. “What are the things you would like to have? Maybe it’s some fresh content or it’s a new topic for a webinar, or maybe just more leads … Strike a deal with them.”
Marketing teams are usually “in a constant optimization cycle,” he notes. “They don’t get the big hurrah of the gong being hit when a deal is closed.”
In place of that adrenaline rush, they look at sales numbers like an imperfect measure of the success of their marketing campaigns.
So the next time you close a big deal, “bring that gong over to marketing and celebrate,” Casey says. Tell them: This deal was awesome, and it’s thanks to you. Send me more.”