Welcome to another episode of 7-Minute Marketing with Pam. My name is Pam Didner. I love sharing a little dose of B2B, digital, content marketing and sales enablement, seven minutes at a time.
While being interviewed for a podcast, I was asked a great question: “Hey, Pam, you wrote a sales enablement book from a marketer’s perspective. That sounds good. But how can marketers really benefit from supporting sales?”
So, I’d like to answer that at two different levels:
At the micro level:
Like I said, with the rise of digital, the boundaries of sales and marketing are disappearing. In the past, email marketing was done exclusively by marketers. Now, sales can run their own customized and personalized mini email campaigns straight out of their CRM systems. Another example is social media. Social media is not a marketers’ tool anymore. Sales are using it for social selling and social listening, even customer services are using it to answer customers’ questions real-time.
Through supporting inside sales and post sales, you, as a marketer, learn how the other groups use your marketing channels. You get to know how sales handle rejections and how customer services address customers’ concerns. You can use the knowledge to refine your buyers’ personas, editorials, content planning, even your inbound and outbound marketing efforts. It’s a win-win.
At the macro level:
Marketers’ career paths may be limited within marketing departments. Supporting sales opens additional career opportunities. I know several marketers that moved into sales enablement, operations, customer services, and even training.
There are plenty of benefits to supporting sales. For me, supporting sales led to the publication of my 2nd book, Effective Sales Enablement.
Also, I strongly recommend marketers work with sales closely. Supporting sales is like opening a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna’ get, but you know that you’ll get something delicious.
Again, send me your marketing questions or thoughts via Twitter @pamdidner.
Before you leave, make sure to check out the previous #7MinMarketing episodes!
Keep Hustling, my friends. You got this.
What can Pam Didner do for you?
Being in the corporate world for 20+ years and having held various positions from accounting and supply chain management, and marketing to sales enablement, she knows how corporations work. She can make you and your team a rock star by identifying areas to shine and do better. She does that through private coaching, keynote speaking, workshop training, and hands-on consulting. Contact her or find her on LinkedIn and Twitter. A quick note: Check out her new 90-Day Revenue Reboot, if you are struggling with marketing.
