What is a good practice for managing a hybrid sales team structure?

A funny thing happened somewhere around a week or two ago --- or at least that's when I started noticing it: Linkedin is now prompting me with suggested topics to Post and write articles on. I presume one of two things have occurred: Either it was there all along and I just noticed it, or I've just crossed over some threshold in Articles posted or Post impressions where their algorithms suggest that it would be useful to start prompting me. I prefer to think that it's the latter and that something (not someone, because I'm sure it's an algorithm) has noticed my persistent publishing here on Linkedin. I'm sure that the Hybrid model that Linkedin wants me to speak to is the blending of Digital and In-Person strategies. The request was actually vague and there are a lot of ways to make a Hybrid sales team - but this one is the "Hot Topic" right now, so I'll run with it!

So, I really love touching on this topic because it's one that if not handled well and openly can generate some confusion and conflict with marketing teams. A LOT of today's marketing teams feel like they "Own" the digital channels to market and can get overly protective of them if a salesperson or sales team tries to use them without approval or even submission and control by the marketing leadership. What's at odds with this is the MARKET - our customers and colleagues out there at the end of the digital outreach expect Authentic, genuine voices that deliver real messages without a lot of spin and polish. I did some A/B testing a while back (really over a decade ago now) between some quickly put-together product overview videos featuring my company's product managers and some much more polished professionally produced and edited videos. (This all while I was a Division Marketing Manager at a Fortune 500 company). The outcome was startling - with very very few exceptions, the quick and dirty videos got much more engagement and views than the polished videos. It all goes down to that desire for Authenticity in today's customers. I truly believe that the polished videos made them feel like they were being sold to and the quick and dirty videos made them feel like they were being helped. Thus that customer shares, likes and comments on the Authentic helpful video much more than the professionally polished piece of marketing.

This is a long way around to saying that the authenticity that you and your sales team can bring to customer interaction through digital mediums is well worth the risk of their material being slightly off-message or slightly off-brand that your Marketing team will worry about. (Especially if they are Old School!). So, if you know me - you know a fundamental principle is "Nothing in the Dark of Night" --- My message here is don't surprise your marketing team - let them know that you want your Sales team to build a digital footprint as part of the SALES strategy and do your best to get alignment and understanding with your Marketing leadership about the digital channels and approaches that you are going to use - give the marketing leadership the opportunity to provide advice, recommendations, and gotchas that they've experienced - but stress the importance of Authenticity and letting your team be genuine online. Develop a set of guidelines with them - Some Guard rails that can't be crossed in business-related digital media communications. ...BUT Avoid giving them editorial control and veto power - it will take away the authentic voice that is what works in today's world!! A lot of Marketing leaders (especially those from the "Old School") were taught that they can and should control the message - This may have never been true - but it certainly isn't today - The best any of us can hope for is to influence the message effectively - Today's connected world just doesn't allow for control of the brand image. Don't believe me - pick your favorite brand and google it with "Sucks" as part of your search term!

So - after that long setup - let's get down to how you manage a Hybrid structure in a sales team. I'm actually a big fan of specialized roles within sales teams - (Sales Development reps that focus on outbound engagement like prospecting, Inside sales that is responsive to inbound requests, and field salespeople who spend the majority of their time in the field in front of customers and partners) - Having said that, I don't think most teams are yet ready and have the scale to have a dedicated Digital element. In addition that immediately flies in the face of the authenticity I think your team should be delivering online. So my first recommendation is that you make Digital outreach part of the task for everyone on the team. Start with the following:

• Establish an expectation for a solid Linkedin Profile: Up to date, membership in a minimum number of groups that tie to your industry, Photo, etc (They are lots of online guides for this - so I won't build out a complete list).
• Collaborate with Marketing to ensure that your team is interacting with their content: Like, Share, and Comment on all of the formal company content - this will both demonstrate that your team is trying to support and amplify their work and will help build the Sales teams visibility - on their way to building their online brand as thought leaders in your industry.
• Once these practices are well embedded within the team, start to ask them to generate their own content. Have them develop content that is of interest to your target audience, but ensure that it is Authentic and real. Over time this approach will pay off with increased reach on the platform - and your team building their visibility as experts or thought leaders in the industry.
• Make sure to have them link up their content on the 'Featured' section of their profiles. Content has a short half-life on Social Media, and by putting their content in their featured section - those that come to "Linkedin stalk" them will see some of what they've done to become thought leaders.
• Make sure that time is set aside each week to make these approaches become a habit. One post or article a week is a reasonable expectation and this is a perfect activity for a Friday afternoon or Monday morning office day task list.
• Once a team member has really built a Linkedin presence that is professional and consistent, it's now time to ask them to begin some outreach techniques on Linkedin - You want that solid profile with history PRIOR to doing a bunch of outreach so that those that they contact have a reason to trust them and Reply!
• So, this is again where you may start to threaten marketing - Make sure that your reps' outreach programs are in the space of Prospecting for like customers and not a mass marketing campaign - and let marketing know what your team is doing!
• In today's world studies are telling us that most customers are somewhere between 60% and 70% down the path to their buying journey before they ever reach out to a salesperson. It's CRITICAL that we engage them on that path the way they want to be engaged -Digitally with VALUABLE information. The customer will reach out to you when they are ready if you provide value along their path - That's why building out valuable, authentic content is important as the first step.
• The next step is turning it around and making some digital outreach to logical customer targets. I like the approach of replicating success. It's beyond the scope here to provide guidance on all of the tools that Linkedin offers via their Marketing Solutions product - but I would recommend giving your sales team access to these tools with a budget and strict guidelines on the One to One contact style that you and your marketing team support for the Sales Team to engage in.
• Linkedin has tools that will allow you to build content that can be distributed to very specific target audiences. Let's say your company's new 'Fujipucker' product has had a lot of success in Packaging machine OEM's because it allows Case erectors to put cartons up 35% faster than competing 'Pucker' solutions. Allow your team member to make an outreach attempt using Linkedin Marketing Services to other OEM targets that look just like the profile of your successful OEM's (Replicate Success) - They go do this with an outreach that lands the targets on one of their articles talking about prior success. This outreach should be to a manageable number of targets generated from Linkedin within the reps assigned territory.
• The one-to-one piece of this becomes when a target reaches out and engages with your team member - They can handle these responses with a personal reach out via email, phone, or even a face-to-face visit.

This hybrid approach with Sales led authentic interactions with a logical target customer base IS THE 21st CENTURY version of prospecting! It's time efficient and it resonates with customers because your team is bringing value on a regular basis. It can feel like Marketing to the marketing team but it is more localized and more specifically targeted and develops into a personal contact more quickly than typical marketing activities. It really is just a more efficient Prospecting methodology and as a sales leader, it's important for you to communicate and align with the marketing team so that your team can become Thought Leaders and efficient prospectors using today's tools.

I think as these techniques and approaches mature, an opportunity to specialize these approaches within your team will develop - but for now, and because they are so dependent on the 'Personal Brand' of the rep making the contact, I'd suggest managing this by assigning time slices (4 hours per week) to every member of your team.