Successfully Marketing for Your Sales Team with Pam Didner, Ep #75

Pam notes that sales and marketing think and approach the same objectives very differently from the get-go. Sales and marketing teams have the same business and revenue objectives, but they usually differ in their approach. Salespeople say “accounts, “ whereas marketers say “buyer personas.” Salespeople focus on the bottom of the funnel, and marketing focuses on the top. Salespeople are driven by short-term objectives (i.e., quotas they have to meet), but marketers focus on long-term objectives (such as building brand awareness).

But once you understand the differences, you can find commonalities and ways to work together. Can your teams do a joint initiative? Can marketing help build sales templates? Pam recommends that sales and marketing teams find one or two projects to work on together.

Outline of This Episode

• [2:26] How to get to know your customer deeply
• [6:22] The number of “you” should be more than “we”
• [11:18] Understand your company’s martech stack + processes
• [16:06] How to determine the tools to invest in
• [22:45] Proper integration of sales and marketing
• [25:40] How to improve the quality of your MQLs
• [30:58] What is account-based marketing?
• [33:37] Kick off the year developing a marketing plan
• [36:52] How to successfully write a book
• [41:15] Get connected with Pam Didner

How to improve the quality of your MQLs

Marketers tend to pass raw leads to sales. But unless people on the sales side know how to filter the leads, it won’t fly. Hundreds of thousands of people visit websites. Someone needs to qualify those leads to determine if they’re worth passing to sales. That responsibility is usually unclear. Who owns it? Marketing or sales? That must be determined and defined under someone’s role.

But first, you need to define your MQLs to qualify them. That means you need to know your ICP. Is your ICP a manufacturing segment with a company size of 2,000+ and revenue over $15 million? This way, when marketing gets a lead, they can make sure it meets the ICP before passing to sales. You need to know your customers well and deeply.

Use the language your sales team uses

Many B2B sales teams don’t say they’re talking to “IT decision-makers” or “soccer moms.” Instead, they use company names like “HP” or “American Express.” They’re talking about the account. Marketers need to support sales by using the same language they’re accustomed to and tailor marketing efforts to accounts, such as healthcare segments or American Express. It is called targeted outreach for a reason. If your client wants you to reach out to 20 decision-makers at American Express, then you create targeted ads for them.

Kick-off the year developing a marketing plan

A marketing plan is an internal documentation, a roadmap of sorts, to guide your year. To develop an accurate marketing plan, you need to understand each marketing function and incorporate them. Most plans are reviewed by management to allocate budget. The marketing plan also helps determine whether or not additional head-count is needed. Once you get your budget, you’ll likely have to prioritize and pare down your plan. When disaster strikes, look at your budget and activities and determine next steps.

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect with Pam Didner

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