Sales and marketing alignment

5 Marketing Terms Redefined for Sales Professionals

sales-terms-for-marketing

Marketing and sales teams, whether they like it or not, are inextricably linked. The most successful organizations have open communication between these two teams—or even better, a strategy that combines the two teams’ greatest strengths.

While marketing can do a better job understanding the skills and motivations of sales professionals, when it comes to social selling, sales teams need to take a page out of marketing’s book.

But to be able to read that book, you need to get a few terms under your belt first. That’s why we put together a quick lexicon of some marketing terms that pertain most to sellers venturing into the social selling world.

Targeting

Do you research! There’s a big difference between calling a list of potential prospects and using social selling tactics to find relevant target prospects and conduct research to understand their needs.

Marketers go to great lengths to identify their target audience and pay close attention to their needs. If not, efforts like email campaigns can go to waste—and so can your sales initiatives.

Personalization

A personalized approach to selling is a major competitive advantage. Marketers personalize emails and on-site experiences in response to rapidly growing consumer expectations.

Sales professionals must stay abreast of this trend—personalize your outreach on social media by using shared connections and carefully crafted messages.

Content

This is perhaps the most familiar of all marketing terms; content marketing must now be a part of your social sales arsenal.

By creating, sharing, and promoting content, you’re demonstrating that you’re an authoritative expert in the space.

Purchase Cycle

Here’s another component in the quest for relevance. Marketers communicate and classify based on prospects’ stage in the purchase cycle.

As a sales professional, you too need to understand if they’re still in the research stage or if they’re ready to ask questions. Without this understanding, you won’t be able to engage and communicate as effectively.

Selling Point

This is a term you probably already know, but it doesn’t hurt to revisit. As a sales professional you need to be able answer these two questions:

1.    What makes you different?

2.    How does that pertain to your prospects’ goals?

Per the above, this needs to be tailored to the prospect’s role, place in the purchase cycle, and specific concerns.

In the customer-centric world of social selling, we all need to be marketers. If you want to learn how a marketer thinks about these terms or approaches their strategy, reach out! As a sales professional on the frontlines with potential clients, you have just as much insight to offer.

Let your marketing team know what your prospects have been asking about and what their chief concerns seem to be. In turn, ask for tips on how to easily create compelling, shareable content on LinkedIn and other social platforms.

For more advice on how to think like a marketer for better sales, check out our latest eBook, How Personalized Selling Unlocks Competitive Advantage. 

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