For the most part sales reps are normal people with families, children, and a binding moral compass.
They’re mild-mannered professionals. But, poke them and they’ll turn into angry bears.
Don’t poke the bear. Don’t poke the sales rep.
This week we’re focusing on marketing and sales alignment, among the most critical things marketers can learn is what NOT to say to sales reps. These things will either upset your sales department, or make your sales department feel stupid…neither of which are good.
Here we go…
This is what marketing is really thinking. But, marketers, you just can’t just say that to sales. If you do, prepare for angry outbursts. Prepare for your head to be ripped off and your skull to be used as a Kool-Aid filled chalice that is passed around at the next sales meeting.
Saying this is a bad idea. Why? Because, keep in mind, your sales team is saying the exact opposite thing in their minds: “Why aren’t they sending us better leads?”
If you’re a marketer, the last thing a sales rep wants to hear from you is what they could have done differently on their sales call.
Marketers might be tempted to say these things to sales reps for two reasons:
1) You generated the leads so you know about the leads. You know what White Paper they downloaded, what information they requested, and other details about their background.
2) If the lead is a marketer, you likely know how this lead thinks, feels, and makes decisions.
But don’t say anything!
Hold your tongue. (Again, unless you want the sales rep to go nuts on you).
Every marketer wants to run into a sales meeting, shred his or her clothes, jump on a table, and yell this.
Seriously.
This is marketing’s number 1 issue with sales reps. It isn’t even close.
Marketers spend money, time, energy and significant brain power to generate leads. Marketers know the data that shows leads NEED to be called within about 5 minutes. Thus, marketers MARVEL that sales reps don’t jump on the phone immediately when a lead comes through.
Seriously sales, what’s up with that anyway??!?
Sales reps need to understand broad strokes of lead generation strategy. Your sales team should know where their leads comes from. They should know how the lead found you. They should know what campaigns are starting, stopping, and ongoing.
BUT…they do not need to know how to rank higher for a specific long tail keywords. They don’t need to know how to optimize PPC campaigns.
Get them out of the weeds. Don’t give the sales team a discourse on retargeting strategy.
Imagine how you would react if a sales rep gave you a detailed treatise on cold call greetings, getting through the gatekeeper to the DM, or trial closes.
This would bewilder and baffle you.
