3 Ways content marketing can be used as a sales tool

(This piece was originally published on Brafton.com)

The content marketing scene has evolved in the past decade, and so has the way sales teams operate. Whether it is the vast resources prospects have to do their own research, or the numerous industries saturated by endless competition – sales people are challenged with developing skills that allow them to have meaningful conversations with their prospects and differentiate themselves and their company.  

At Brafton, our sales and marketing teams have never been more in love – and for good reason.  Companies with strong sales and marketing alignment produce an annual growth rate of 20 percent, compared to the 4 percent growth rate that companies with poor alignment experience, according to a recent  Kapost study.

Great marketing teams are generating more – and better quality – opportunities every month.  In fact, as more businesses adopt inbound content marketing strategies, it’s not uncommon to expect a majority of new sales leads to come from content marketing related efforts.

A smart salesperson understands the power of content marketing, but still might be under utilizing content as a sales tool.

But does the value of that content your marketing team develops stop when the lead hits the sales team?  For the best salespeople, content created by their internal or external marketing teams isn’t only a source of new leads, but also a crucial tool in today’s sales environment.   

That said, many sales people miss opportunities to take advantage of their content resources, or may simply lack the knowledge to effectively leverage blogs, videos, case studies, infographics, or other materials their marketing teams publish.  

Here's one common scenario that sales people run into and how content can be incorporated to move the sales process forward.

Content as the Conversation Starter

Let’s face it: prospecting is hard.  More and more buyers, whether B2B or B2C, use the internet for a large portion of their product research before ever approaching a solutions provider.  

• 94% of B2B buyers research online for purchase decisions
• In the tech industry, almost half (46%) of buyers read two to five assets before deciding whether to purchase. A full 25% said they read six to eight pieces of collateral before they’re ready to buy.

• 62% of Millennials research products on Facebook before buying

• 64% of in-store purchases will be influenced by digital in 2016

Gone are the days when cold calling someone at the right time and place guaranteed a new opportunity.  If your prospects are prone to hang up the phone, no matter the value you feel you can bring them, how can you cut through the clutter?

By leading with content, sales people allow themselves to do the following while prospecting:

• Establish trust by providing information that is useful to the prospect’s buying process.
• Provide education to prospects that helps to answer questions they may have regarding your industry, products or services.
• Customize and differentiate your company’s values to your prospects.

In order to capitalize on the benefits of content while prospecting, sales people have to make sure that messages are customized. For instance, content that speaks to ecommerce clients’ FAQs isn’t going to resonate with B2B tech buyers.

This is especially important during the prospecting phase of the sales process, as an irrelevant piece of content could vanquish any opportunity to set up a more meaningful conversation.

To check out two more common scenarios, click here to read the complete blog post on Brafton.com