Is there such a thing as useless content?
Surely every piece of content is valuable to you – otherwise why would you write it?
The problem comes down to perception.
Take your typical company.
On one side you have the marketing department. They are tasked with creating and developing every piece of external marketing collateral the business needs.
On the other side is the sales team. It’s their job to interact with customers and sell to them. To help them, the marketing team produce shed loads of content on a regular basis.
That’s where the problems start.
Why marketers shouldn’t produce content for your sales team on their own
The marketing department is very distinct from the sales team; they don’t face customers on a daily basis, they don’t have to overcome their objections and they don’t have the pressure of sales targets looming over them.
That means they see things very differently.
When the marketers are asked to create some new collateral they do so in a very detached way – let me elaborate.
Away from the sales front line, they don’t have the benefit of customer interaction to guide them.
They don’t always understand what motivates customers to buy (or not to buy), which means what they create may not necessarily be relevant.
Why your sales team should produce more content
Before you scream at me, yes I know the sales team is under a lot of pressure already, but hear me out.
When interacting with customers they either realise that they can’t find the information they need, or the content they have been given isn’t effective.
Granted, the ‘not being able to find it’ issue could easily be resolved by introducing some form of technical solution that means all the content they need is at their finger tips, but that won’t help if it’s not effective.
Why isn’t it effective?
The simple answer is because they need something that will fit the moment.
One way of getting a closer to this ideal is to collaborate.
It’s time to talk
The only way relevant content can be achieved is through personal interaction with customers.
Because this is something your sales team do on a daily basis, it makes sense to sit them down with your marketing team so together they can talk through typical scenarios to develop the right content and tools necessary to help the sales team close the deal.
Granted, many interactions are prospect or lead specific so the content may not be a 100% fit, but it will be a lot closer.
A more collaborative future
It’s often been believed that the sales team shouldn’t be spending their time creating content because they should be selling.
That’s true, but if they have no input they can hardly complain when the marketers don’t produce what they want.
By bringing the two teams together, marketers form a support role, providing them with the content they need to satisfy their customers.