Quality Content = Quality Leads. Here's Why.

The sales and marketing world revolves around analyzing numbers and hitting targets. So it's no wonder that one of the most common complaints you'll hear is they need more leads to meet quota.

However, is it really that simple? The fact is, more leads may not always equal more conversions. It's vital that your sales and marketing teams work together to develop an intentional, comprehensive plan for developing quality content and delivering appropriate follow-up for leads.

Let's talk about both sides of the "lead issues" coin — namely, too few leads and too many leads — and see how quality content can solve many of the problems your teams may be facing.

Too Few Leads = Lack of Relevant Content

It's easy to think of scenarios in which a lack of relevant content results in a need for more leads for the sales team. Take digital content as an example. Far too often, the marketing team creates websites and other digital content with zero input from the sales team. When you think about it, that's an incredible missed opportunity!

Sales reps often have valuable insights into how customers interact with marketing materials. They know their specific goals and interests. And they understand common objections that may arise from the outset of their time in the funnel. Why wouldn't marketing want to tap into that kind of resource?

When sales and marketing work together to create top-of-the-funnel content, it almost inevitably leads to more leads. Here are just a few of the ways sales and marketing teams can create synergy in terms of content creation:

• Marketing can compile and utilize a list of key phrases and topics the sales team sees and hears from leads they interact with.
• Both teams should understand (and communicate with each other) what TOFU content leads want.
• Sales can be an excellent asset in terms of developing blog topics for publication, especially when there's a consistent process in place for collaboration between sales and marketing.
• Marketing can ask sales if they would recommend specific influencers and referral sources to partner with (especially those who have a strong, active presence on social media).
• Marketing can tap into sales interactions for real-life stories that communicate the brand's mission statement and values to prospects.
• Marketing can also ask sales reps to take note of the most interesting sales conversions they have during the week and stay alert to trends and common threads of interest.

Bring Sales and Marketing Together

Granted, mileage may vary on these tactics, depending on the nature of your business and consumer base. But the point is, whatever content marketing strategies you implement will be improved (perhaps dramatically) by bringing your sales and marketing teams together. It's vital that there is a consistent process of collaboration in place. There must be a clear consensus about the nature of your buyers' journeys. And that content is intentionally mapped to meet the needs of your buyers each step of the way.

The result of all this planning and collaboration will be a solid content strategy that brings, not only more leads, but better-qualified leads into your sales funnel.

Too Many Leads = Lack of Targeted Content

At first glance, it may seem obvious that the more leads a sales team has in its pipeline, the greater its chances of converting those leads into paying customers. The problem is, it may not be that simple, especially if the company's lead generation strategy has replaced quality with quantity. Actually, investing in quantity over quality can result in a lot of wasted time and effort.

In many cases, brands face this issue because their content, though relevant to consumer needs and desires, is not targeted enough to weed out the non-qualified leads from the qualified ones. For example, imagine a company that offers chartered flights starting at $5,000. There is a market for this type of offering, whether in the corporate world, the sports world, or some other sector. But what if the price is never mentioned in TOFU or even MOFU content?

The company may generate a lot of interest from small business owners, for instance — but how many of them would be willing to pay a minimum of $5,000 per flight? It's easy to see how more leads in this case may not translate to a better lead generation strategy. In fact, the company could end up wasting thousands of dollars on ads that only bring non-qualified leads into the funnel.

Again, Bring Sales and Marketing Together

Here again, cooperation between your sales and marketing teams can help prevent (or at least mitigate) this problem. Your two departments can work together to make sure the right leads are targeted. For example:

• Sales can review marketing content and make suggestions on how to more effectively target the content based on key factors they've noticed in previous interactions with leads (such as pricing, service delivery time frame, support processes, and so on)
• Both teams can review customer journey mappings and analyze whether refinements need to be made to better align with real customer needs
• Marketing can communicate with sales regularly, and ask for feedback on how to adjust content to more effectively address common questions and objections that are raised

"Time is money" in the world of sales, and forcing your reps to contact the wrong leads wastes both of those precious resources. Establishing and maintaining open lines of communication between your two departments is the key to maximizing the impact of your content without making it too broad. It's true that some leads will end up "qualifying themselves" out of your funnel — which is a good thing! It will free up your sales team to focus on the leads that are most likely to buy from your brand.

At the end of the day, creating quality content through consistent collaboration will help you generate enough leads to keep your sales pipeline full, but not so many that you end up wasting time on non-qualified ones. Your teams will become more productive and efficient, and your sales performance as a whole will improve.

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A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in a new book called Sales & Marketing Alignment. If you'd like more insights on how you can improve your sales leadership, contact us. Or sign up for our newsletter for more valuable resources.

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