Believe it or not, closing a sale is an art of business relationships, think about it, the salesperson must know the product, needs to identify the potential customer, and determine the exact timing to get the best deal for the business.
On the other hand, the marketing team oversees planning, writing, and experimenting with content. With these actions they seek to grow the audience, thus attracting more prospects for the sales team.
Although both teams have the objective of achieving more revenue for the company, they do not always accompany each other in the process. This is a serious mistake, many times the sales team does not know what content or promotion is being offered or the marketing team does not know the Buyer Persona well, because they do not know what doubts they are having. Therefore, an alignment of both teams and content that attracts and is made based on the Buyer Persona are essential to deliver quality leads to the sales team.
Read: How a Buyer Persona improves the Sales Process
The Inbound methodology teaches us and explains the importance of content creation, but how do you leverage it to engage more prospects and help salespeople close a deal? Today we bring you 7 ways to use content in favor of closing more deals:
A good first impression will keep you in the game. Research has shown that people read at least 5 pieces of content related to a company or product before buying, but the reality is that only 2 out of 10 salespeople use content to engage prospects.
Thanks to the content you know the prospect consumed, you'll have a clear idea of how to move forward after an initial conversation without sounding too salesy. Once you've earned their trust and are seen as honest, the sale becomes more natural.
Keep your customer updated with content that helps them improve, using your tools or products or with information about new products that may interest them. They can also ask them to help you create content, make them part of your achievements with videos or content about their own success stories.
For new prospects, use the information you built for your Buyer Persona and create personalized landing pages to help them quickly answer their specific questions, another way to answer questions effectively is through webinars.
Don't just stick to what your company has developed for them, identify if they also have content and read their most recent publications.
Think about your favorite brand right now - what drives you to recommend it to friends or on social media? Chances are you trust the brand, have been made to feel valued or have a special connection to the product.
Share relevant content that helps build trust in the product or service they purchased, an example is giving them tips or advice on how to use it. Imagine you sell leather bags, a blog that could help build that trust is to teach your customer how to clean it properly so that it can last for many years to come. When you turn your customers into brand advocates you can close additional deals through case studies and referrals.
Other actions you can take are:
Review with your marketing team which content pieces are most consumed through performance summaries that include:
Tools like HubSpot’s CRM will allow you to track every interaction with leads, prospects and current customers and by having all the potential customer's history in a single platform you will maximize time and improve productivity.
Read: Improving customer experience translates into business value
Believe it or not, video is one of the most consumed pieces by people and therefore it is a crucial element to boost and increase the closing of your sales. It has been shown that 84% of consumers were convinced to purchase a product by watching video marketing content.
At the end of your first meeting, you can send a follow-up email accompanied by a 30-second video about some case studies and testimonials to keep your lead excited about the product.
Read more: How to start using videos in your marketing strategy
On average 5% of people in your target market are ready to buy, so it's important to identify them for accurate follow-up. Unfortunately, in most companies, sales reps can't maintain that level of outreach. That's where automation tools play a critical role. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) will allow you to classify your leads, but what's next, I advise you to draft some sets of email flows that are triggered automatically or can be triggered manually.
Here are some examples that might help:
After your lead fills out a demo request, send them an email with a video that gives them a brief preview of the demo. This will help you keep them engaged until it's time for the meeting.
Send a personalized email and make the prospect feel special, tailoring it to, for example, whether the recipient is a contributor or a decision maker.
Read: Keep selling in your CRM even when you're too busy
We've covered seven ways you can leverage content to close deals. But keep in mind that the sales process does not rely exclusively on emotions and feelings. Therefore, always remember to measure the results of your strategies and apply continuous improvement in your follow-up process and see what's working and what's not.
Some of the factors we recommend you to measure are the time it takes you to answer a prospect, the number of prospects you receive per week, the email that generates the most responses, etc. Set goals for these metrics and check every 30 days if you are achieving your objectives. If you don't reach your goals, change your strategy, or action plan until you notice improvements.
Use these recommendations and implement them in your department as soon as possible. Remember that knowing your business and your customers is the guideline to optimize performance.