7 Ways a Full-Service Marketing Agency Can Empower Your Sales Team

If you're reading this, chances are your sales and marketing teams are operating in their own bubbles, each with distinct priorities. And it's probably no secret to you that this separation can lead to mixed messages and missed opportunities.

Marketing might generate leads that your sales team doesn't find valuable, while sales might struggle to reach out to prospects at the right time. But when these teams join forces, they create a unified approach that aligns their efforts and enhances efficiency.

So, I've highlighted five ways a marketing agency can help connect your marketing and sales team.

1. Implementing automation to save time and energy

Too many companies are worried about the cost or time investment marketing automation will require to set up. But it turns out that automation quickly pays for itself. Imagine the time you could save if you could send the right message, to the right person, at exactly the right time — automatically.

With the right rules in place, your sales team can:

• Check in with prospects at critical moments in the buying journey (e.g., after they download your offer, visit your pricing page more than once, or abandon their shopping cart) without lifting a finger
• Automatically score and prioritize leads based on their engagement and behavior, so your sales team knows who to focus on first
• Segment your audience based on their behavior
• Give detailed insights into a lead's interactions and preferences, allowing for more personalized and effective sales pitches
• Predict when a lead is ready to talk to sales
• And SO much more!

Marketing automation isn't just a tool for efficiency; it's a catalyst for sales success. It empowers sales teams to focus on what they do best — building relationships and closing deals — while the technology handles the rest.

2. Making the most of tradeshows

Tradeshows give your sales team a chance to shine and get in front of potential customers. But to truly make the most of these events, your marketing efforts need to be as dynamic and engaging as your sales pitch.

What many sales teams might not know is that marketing for tradeshows is more than creating a booth banner and posting an announcement on your social platforms. Here's a simple overview of what a marketing team might think about and execute on for an upcoming tradeshow:

Before the Show: Set the stage for success by creating targeted landing pages specifically for event attendees, offering exclusive content or special offers that pique their interest. Leverage social media to generate buzz and excitement, and schedule meetings in advance to ensure your sales team has a packed agenda.

During the Show: Elevate your booth experience beyond the ordinary. Incorporate QR codes that lead to interactive content or engaging contests, and have tablets ready for quick email sign-ups. Livestream key parts of the event to engage your online audience and extend your reach beyond the tradeshow floor.

After the Show: This is where the real magic happens. Use the data collected at the show to segment new leads and seamlessly integrate them into your nurture campaigns. Send personalized follow-up emails that reference specific conversations from your booth, and offer webinars that delve deeper into topics discussed at the event.

By weaving your digital marketing strategies into your tradeshow presence, you're not just gathering business cards — you're forging relationships that your automated systems can nurture long after the show has ended.

3. Easily identifying lead quality 

In lead generation, quality trumps quantity. And at Vye, our lead qualification process goes beyond basic contact information, using progressive profiling to build comprehensive lead profiles over time.

Lead scoring makes it possible. For example, if a contact takes the following actions, they could be assigned the following points.

• Email open: 5 points
• Whitepaper download: 20 points
• Pricing page visit: 50 points

This system automatically prioritizes high-potential leads for your sales team and helps identify intent (even if the contact doesn't go so far as to fill out a form or raise their hand to get in touch with someone on your team).

Likewise, negative scoring can help identify inactive leads to help keep your database up to date. For example, if a contact doesn't interact with your content for three months, they lose 10 points.

Remember, the goal is to attract and identify the right leads, not just to inflate numbers. This focused approach significantly improves conversion rates and sales team efficiency.

4. Using webinars as more than a promotional platform 

Webinars are powerful tools for sales teams, offering unique opportunities to engage prospects and accelerate the sales process. When strategically implemented, they can significantly boost your sales efforts.

Key benefits for sales teams include:

• Lead qualification: Webinar attendance and engagement provide valuable data for lead scoring and qualification.
• Thought leadership: Webinars position your sales team as industry experts, building trust with prospects.
• Product demonstrations: Interactive demos allow sales teams to showcase product features and address questions in real time.
• Pain point addressing: Webinars focused on solving specific problems help sales teams identify and engage high-potential prospects.
• Personalized follow-ups: Q&A sessions provide insights for tailored follow-up conversations.
  Content Creation: Recorded webinars become valuable assets for sales teams to share with prospects.
• Sales cycle acceleration: By educating prospects and addressing objections, webinars can shorten the sales cycle.

To maximize these benefits, work with marketing to align webinar topics with your buyer's journey stages and automate registration and follow-up processes. And after the webinar, create on-demand content from recordings to extend their value and reach.

By integrating webinars into your sales strategy, you provide your team with powerful tools to engage, educate, and convert prospects more effectively.

5. Giving sales a look into what prospects do (and don't) want

The beauty of inbound marketing is that everything is measurable. Every click, every download, every form submission leaves a digital trail. And that trail is pure gold for marketers who know how to read it.

Unfortunately, we see too many clients collect data — and then do nothing with it, whether it's because they're overwhelmed, or they just aren't sure where to start.

The real magic happens when you know how to use data to drive decisions. Is your email open rate dropping? Maybe it's time to A/B test some new subject lines. Are people bouncing from your landing pages? Take another look at your offer and call to action.

Reminder: This isn't just about fixing what's broken. It's also about doubling down on what's working. If a particular type of content is resonating with your audience, make more of it. If a certain channel is driving high-quality leads, allocate more resources there.

6. Creating the content your sales team needs to sell

Your sales team depends on a lot of content to make a sale — from persona cards and call guides to case studies and follow-up emails. And most (if not all) of that content can come from your marketing team, backed by a full-blown strategy and tracking analytics. 

7. Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

If you've ever thought to yourself, "If we could just land [this] company, we could open doors for more sales," then a marketing agency might be the key to your success. By tapping your sales and marketing teams in tandem, account-based marketing (ABM) can be a successful tool for landing your ideal customer.

Here's just a few ways a marketing agency can help your sales team leverage ABM effectively:

• Analyze your existing customer base to identify ideal account profiles
• Use data-driven insights to pinpoint high-value prospects
• Develop a tiered approach to prioritize accounts based on potential value and likelihood to convert
• Create highly personalized content tailored to each target account's specific pain points and goals
  
• Develop account-specific landing pages, emails, and ad campaigns 
• Set up shared dashboards and reporting systems
• Create triggers for sales team outreach based on prospect behavior

Harness the best of both teams

Successfully marketing a business isn’t easy. But, fortunately, we have an in-hand approach that works well. If you are interested in exploring the possibility of embracing inbound marketing and sales enablement to attract, convert, close, and delight more customers, we're ready to guide you through the process. Yes, it does take time. But, what good things in business don't?