How B2B marketing must support B2B sales

Most marketing teams operate with minimal collaboration with their sales counterparts, simply communicating sporadic updates and expecting the sales team to shoulder the rest of the responsibilities. By fostering closer collaboration between the two teams, it can lead to enhanced business performance, benefiting both sectors. Greater coordination between sales and marketing will significantly contribute to substantial business growth.

Here are some strategies marketers can employ to make the job easier for their sales colleagues:

Generate pertinent leads

A proactive approach towards generating online leads will put you at an advantage. But the question remains, are you creating a sufficient volume of high-quality leads? Quantity matters, but quality should be your primary focus. Calculate your lead-to-customer rate to determine the leads required to meet the sales goals. Increasing the volume of your content offerings, such as eBooks and making them accessible on landing pages can significantly boost your lead generation.

Identify and pass on qualified leads

One common complaint from sales reps is the high volume of poor-quality leads handed over by marketing, which detracts from their core tasks. To mitigate this, marketers can develop criteria for identifying leads most likely to be interested in the company's offerings using a lead scoring system.

Synchronise the sales process with the lead qualification process

As lead generation scales up, it's crucial to differentiate between early-stage leads and those on the brink of making a purchase. By understanding where their leads are in their buying journey, sales teams can tailor their outreach to meet the specific needs of each lead.

Automate lead generation and qualification

Implementing automation within your workflows can enhance sales productivity. Automation allows for efficient data collection, lead nurturing, and guidance through the sales funnel.

Establish Shared KPIs

Creating shared KPIs for sales and marketing teams facilitates unified efforts towards common business goals. Regular review of these KPIs can further optimize efficiency and workflows.

Provide Business-Relevant Insights

Conducting a competitor analysis can give your team invaluable insights into how your rivals are marketing and selling their products. These insights can then highlight your company's strengths and address its weaknesses.

Keep Sales Informed

Customer and marketing data can help tailor the sales approach to match potential and existing customers' expectations, challenges, and needs. Regular review of past prospects' objections and queries can help identify pain points, which can be addressed in the marketing approach.

Prioritise alignment

By adopting these strategies, marketing becomes more relevant to sales and the company, making your job easier and demonstrating your value within the business.

If you want to learn more about sales enablement, we have a guide that can help. It covers this effective tactic's whats, whys, wheres, and hows.