Aligned Sales and Marketing Model

Listed below is a framework which supports a well-aligned sales and marketing model. The approach is to focus the energy and effort of the Outbound sales team. The compelling educational content developed by the Content Marketing team should be the source of all content used for prospecting. The goal of the sales team is to take the prospect on a guided tour of the problem-solving content (active) and no longer rely solely on persuasion-based techniques.

We’re in the process of writing a book on this process, “Publish or Perish: Selling in the Age of Content Marketing.”

 

Engage and Build Relationships with Ideal Clients

  1. Develop the Ideal Client Profile
    1. Persona — insights into behaviors and motivations
    2. Buyer’s Journey
    3. Problems/Needs/Wants/Opportunities
  2. Value Proposition
    1. What’s remarkable and different about company/product/service? Hooks?
    2. What are the deep belief systems driving you…never diluted?
  3. Content Marketing Strategy for your Business
    1. Content Marketing Mission Statement (who, what’s delivered, outcome)
    2. Theme of Communications and Engagement Plan based upon Persona’s needs and aligned with your Value Proposition
    3. Develop set of stories that you want to tell
  4. Go-to-Market Sales and Marketing Model
    1. Inbound Strategy
      1. Educational content focused on engaging buyer. Mostly passive approach used to engage buyer when they’re researching across web/social. It’s there when the buyer needs it.
    2. Outbound Strategy
      1. Subservient to Inbound with a focus on educating buyer in an ACTIVE way by acting as a tour guide of the relevant stage-based Inbound content
        1. Develop series of progressive emails and phone scripts consistent with above in a Word.doc
        2. Pull list of ideal client targets and load into Salesforce
        3. Set up theme-based Campaigns in Salesforce
        4. Pull Campaign contacts over to ToutApp Group and load Templates with content from Word.doc
        5. Execute progressive cadence
        6. Capture feedback and loop it back to marketing for refinement of Inbound content