In a technical area like medical device marketing, content marketing can significantly ease the burden on your sales team. However, your sales team may not immediately embrace content marketing efforts. Maybe there are tensions between your marketing and sales teams, or maybe your veteran sales representatives are simply reluctant to let go of "the way we've always done it."
Regardless of the current situation, you can get your sales team to buy in to the value of content marketing and coordinate their efforts with your content marketing team. And, that coordination will make your medical device marketing efforts stronger than ever and aid in revenue generation.
Recognize the Expertise of Your Medical Sales Team
When marketing says, "We can help," sales teams often feel as if their turf is being threatened or their expertise questioned. In truth, the team who talks to prospects on a regular basis is your marketing group's best source of information about what concerns those prospects voice and what kind of information they're looking for.
Asking those questions in advance will allow marketing to develop better, more targeted content and will reinforce the value and knowledge of experienced sales people.
Lighten the Sales Team's Workload with Content Marketing
One key benefit of content marketing is that it can shorten the sales cycle by allowing prospects to work their way along the sales funnel without hands-on participation by your sales team. That only works, though, when the content you're generating is appropriately targeted.
When you're working with the sales team to brainstorm content, ask about the questions they're most often asked by prospects, the technical aspects they're asked to explain and other areas of heavy repetition.
Then, create white papers, blog posts, manuals, charts and infographics or other appropriate materials to address those issues. Not only will the sales team be able to point to those materials when the same questions arise again and again, but prospects who arrive through your website or blog may have already warmed themselves up and answered those preliminary questions with the content you offered.
Support the Sales Team's Efforts
Creating materials your sales team can point to when questions arise is just one way that the content marketing team can support the revenue generation efforts of their colleagues in sales.
Listen to the sales team's pitch and understand their process - there may be opportunities to support that process with digital presentations or printed materials they can walk through with prospects or send along as follow-up to keep the prospect warm and reinforce their efforts.
Revenue Generation Starts with Sales and Marketing Alignment
The possibilities are nearly endless, so long as you start at the beginning and learn what the sales team needs before generating that content.
Getting buy-in from the sales team is much easier when they're involved from the beginning, feel respected and can see how content marketing materials integrate with sales efforts. It's also much easier when you have true buy-in from the top.
Your sales manager must understand the value of these materials and share that perception on a regular basis. That means more than paying lip service to the value of content: your management team should offer concrete guidance on how specific materials incorporate into and support sales efforts.
- For example, when a new white paper is released, the sales manager might circulate an email pointing out the gap it fills and encouraging sales representatives to email this document to prospects when they raise a particular concern or ask a certain question.
Understanding sales efforts and creating materials that support those efforts will not only encourage sales buy-in; it will also ensure that your medical device marketing content addresses the actual interests and concerns of your target market.
Our team is ready to assist you in handling the entire lead life cycle from lead generation to close. If you're looking to build out your marketing efforts for the digital age, then we want to be a part of your team. Reach out to us today for an initial consultation.
