Your technology PR team lined up a dozens of press interviews for you! Are you ready? Author: Dennie Theodore, Communications Trailblazer and HCI Board Member
B2B Tech Marketing + Sales: Let’s Work Together
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By Dennie Theodore, Communications Trailblazer and HCI Board Member
People might debate who had the tougher job, Fred Astaire or Ginger Rogers, when they danced together during the Hollywood’s Golden Age. What really matters is that they partnered brilliantly, and the sum was greater than the parts. The same goes for your sales and marketing leads in a B2B tech company: Working as a united team, they generate more qualified leads and sales from your B2B tech marketing efforts.
How are B2B tech marketing and sales different?
Marketing attracts leads. Sales converts them into customers. B2B tech marketing generates visibility and credibility with many potential buyers. It touches and collects marketing-qualified leads (MQLs). Technical sales follows through, pursues the sales-qualified leads, develops custom solutions, and guides individual buyers through the purchase process. Ideally, marketing and sales work in tandem, combining their unique skillsets to achieve your company’s marketing goals.
Why do B2B tech marketing and sales need to work together?
Only short-sighted companies celebrate a single, unrepeated sale. Buyers purchase more than your product. They invest their trust, brand reputation, and the satisfaction of their own customers in your company. When you create a cohesive client experience from lead to close, it becomes a huge competitive differentiator for your company.
What’s the first step in an integrated marketing and sales approach?
Shared goals are the first step. Your company has overall targets and key performance indicators (KPIs), as does each team, but do they align across the marketing and sales teams to promote a unified company? If the sales team has a 15% growth target, is that reflected within marketing’s approach to client outreach? When marketing works to streamline the customer experience, does the sales team support it with follow-through and a feedback loop?
If shared goals are the first step, are shared tools second?
Shared goals impact your team’s tactics, and shared tools affect are how fast and effectively you can execute. Both contribute to a cohesive customer experience.
Did you know? A quarter of marketers struggle to validate and move data within their companies, and less than 60% of teams use interconnected tools across a company.
Many B2B tech companies have an 18-month buying cycle that involves many nurturing steps along the way to final sale. What if that buying journey were mapped in detail, and marketing provided appropriate, nurturing touchpoints at each stage? Imagine how powerful the customer experience would be if marketing and sales worked hand-in-hand through each stage of the decision-making process. You could build trust faster.
What are some key outcomes of marketing and sales alignment?
- Shorter sales cycles. When marketing and sales are aligned on the definition of marketing qualified leads, sales accepted leads, and sales qualified leads, then marketing becomes more efficient at targeting the best leads and ensuring they are worthy of pursuit before handing them off to sales. Sales can trust that marketing has delivered valuable leads, without wasting time hunting for leads on their own.
- Unified messaging. When marketing and sales collaborate to identify and understand customers’ pain points and how the company’s solutions solve for them, they can speak as one, reinforcing the value proposition and building buyer trust.
- More effective digital marketing campaigns. With goals, targets, and messaging aligned, marketing doesn’t waste time and money throwing things at the wall to see if they stick. Instead, marketing is focused on what they need to deliver to sales, and sales doesn’t have to spend time reviewing junk leads.
Do your B2B tech marketing and sales teams dance as one?
Talk to HCI about creating integrated marketing programs that align with your sales team and goals for your B2B tech company. We are here for you.
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HCI has marketing professionals in North America and Europe.
HCI has marketing professionals in North America and Europe.
