The Importance of Marketing’s Role in Sales Enablement Technologies

Sales enablement technologies have revolutionized outbound selling, with tools like Seismic, Outreach, Salesloft, and Salesforce’s Sales Engagement streamlining the sales process. These platforms assist sales teams in managing their pipeline, timing outreach, and engaging prospects efficiently using pre-built email templates and phone scripts.

While these tools are primarily used by sales teams, integrating marketing into their execution can enhance their impact significantly.

Marketers often see sales enablement technologies as personalized email marketing tools, similar to marketing automation platforms.

• Should this tool connect to your CRM? Yes.
• Should you use personalization in the selling journey? Yes.
• Should recipients have some familiarity with your brand? Also yes.

By involving marketing in the use, tracking, and optimization of these tools, businesses can achieve better outcomes.

Marketing can play a crucial role in maximizing opportunities, tracking engagement, nurturing leads, and leveraging data to improve the sales process.

Why marketing should be involved in sales enablement technology execution

Here’s how marketing can add value to sales enablement technology:

Aligning lead source to sales messaging

Marketing can ensure that outbound cadences align with where buyers are in their journey, the content they’ve engaged with, and upcoming events or thought leadership that match their interests, tailoring the selling experience to what the buyer is ready to hear.

More opportunities to nurture the sale

By incorporating marketing content into sales cadences, marketing can nurture interested buyers who aren’t ready to book a meeting yet and add them to targeted campaigns based on their engagement.

Ensuring emails reach the inbox

Marketing can provide expertise on best practices for email deliverability, authentication, and engagement tracking to ensure that emails sent through sales enablement technology are reaching inboxes.

Having a reason to reach out

Integrating data from various sources into the CRM allows marketing to create a feedback loop that helps personalize outreach and prioritize the most engaged prospects.

Tracking success and improving performance

By using data from sales enablement technologies, marketing can track engagement, identify prospects who need further nurturing, and assess which lead sources drive high-value opportunities.

Dig deeper: How to align sales and marketing for revenue growth

When marketing should not be involved in sales enablement technology

While marketing can be a valuable partner in sales enablement execution, there are aspects of the strategy that should remain with sales:

Defining what’s being sold

It’s marketing’s role to showcase which accounts align with the buyer profile, while sales defines the profile itself.

Coaching on sales enablement metrics

Sales training and process improvements should stay with the sales team, as they are the experts in this area.

Building cadence timelines and content

Sales knows best which outreach actions to prioritize, how often to reach out, and the ideal number of touchpoints in a cadence, so this responsibility should remain with them.

Personalization

While marketing can suggest relevant content, sales should focus on building personal connections with prospects to drive successful sales.

Integrating marketing into sales enablement technology can enhance the prospect funnel, turning these tools into valuable marketing assets.

Dig deeper: 7 ways to end the sales and marketing Catch-22

FAQs

1. How can marketing add value to sales enablement technology?

Marketing can align lead sources to sales messaging, nurture leads, ensure email deliverability, personalize outreach, and track success for better outcomes.

2. What aspects of sales enablement should remain with the sales team?

Defining what’s being sold, coaching on sales metrics, building cadence timelines and content, and personalization should be handled by the sales team.

3. Why is it essential to integrate marketing into sales enablement technology?

Integrating marketing enhances the impact of sales enablement tools, improves prospect engagement, and drives revenue growth.

4. How can marketing and sales collaborate effectively in using sales enablement technologies?

By aligning strategies, sharing insights, and leveraging each other’s expertise, marketing and sales can optimize the use of sales enablement technologies for better outcomes.

5. What role does data play in enhancing the effectiveness of sales enablement technologies?

Data from various sources can be used to track engagement, personalize outreach, identify high-value opportunities, and improve the overall sales process.

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