I’ve always been interested in how marketing and sales intersect.
Why?
Because when we, as marketers, understand how sales works we can unlock new ways to approach our work.
I’m a big fan of sales strategist and trainer Jill Konrath. Her book, SNAP Selling, looks at the challenges facing B2B salespeople today: namely, our chronically overworked and overwhelmed prospects.
Thanks to technology, business moves faster today than it ever has in history. Prospects juggle too much work and too little time. (Sounds familiar, right?) They’re forgetful, demanding and distracted. Complexity shuts them down. They subscribe to the status quo because it’s safe—mostly because they don’t have the bandwidth to determine if making a change is a risk worth taking. Couple that with offerings that all seem the same, it’s no wonder some sales conversations never get off the ground.
As marketers, it’s our job to pave the way for that conversation as much as possible. Sometimes we knock it out of the park. Sometimes we miss the mark.
So, how can we consistently create compelling content? How can we ensure more of our efforts serve our sales cycle, our sales folks, and the bottom line? Enter Jill Konrath.
Jill identifies three questions prospects ask themselves during the sales process:
- Is it worth meeting with you?
- Is making the change worth the disruption?
- Are you the best fit?
Each time a prospect answers yes, they move forward in the sales funnel toward becoming customers. While it’s obvious these questions are geared for salespeople, we can also use them to drive our marketing content.
It’s the same idea behind mapping content to your sales funnel, but these questions clarify our objectives at each stage:
Every yes progresses readers to the next stage. That's why these questions are so powerful. They make it easier to step into our prospects' shoes. They can be applied universally. Best of all, they shine new light on how prospects assess our offering (and our content) and how we can create better content that paves the way to more successful sales conversations.
In part 2, we’ll take a closer look at each question and discuss the content strategies and tactics to get the most mileage in each stage. Stay tuned!
