Is it possible that giving away too much great content is bad for sales? This concern came up in the B2B content marketing discussion, as unlikely as it sounds.
If prospective customers take the information you give them and use it to buy from your competitor, there is always a risk. The bigger risk is that they never find or consider you in the first place, even if 70% of the buyer’s journey is complete before they ever contact sales.
You should also consider these other things: 95% to 99% of people will bail rather than fill out your registration form; if you’re
Most of those who do register will not provide the correct phone number.
Sales cannot step in and educate your audience until the audience is willing to hear from sales. Based on these figures, somewhere between 98% and 99.8% don’t want to hear from sales even though they’re interested in your information. You need to let the content do the selling.
We at Revenue Accelerators suggest Top Down Sales Strategy
https://revenueaccelerators.com/value-selling/
Here are 5 ways to do just that while ensuring a smooth handoff to sales when buyers are truly ready to talk to them.
#1 Talk to sales early and often
This gives you the inside scoop on what buyers need to know before buying your products, as well as reassuring any concern that you’re stealing their thunder. What questions do they have to ask? What are some of the objections they raise? Is there anything you can do to get you in the door ahead of your competitors?
#2 Get your stories straight
Marketing and sales may not tell the same story chapters, but you are reading from the same book. Be sure to follow a consistent narrative that deepens over time and leads to a happy ending.
#3 Identify the “pivot point” when sales need to step in
At a certain point in a complex B2B purchase, you need a sales rep or sales engineer to meet with the buyer and scope out the right solution for their specific needs. Tag content that might indicate strong interest or intent to purchase and include a compelling reason for prospects to share their real contact information and agree to a meeting. Next for someone who uses your online product selector is to talk to a sales engineer for a custom configuration or report.
#4 Make it easy to take the next step
A good story can be ruined if there is a bad finish. The next stage of the buyer’s journey should be provided with a simple stepping-stone. No one wants to fill out a long form with a bunch of questions that a sales rep will ask again. According to Ardath Albee in a recent post, how online dialogues are transitioned into 1-to-1 sales conversations can either keep your prospects buying momentum moving along or stop it cold.
#5 Measure and share success
Once you have mapped the content to each stage of the buyer’s journey, use a Web analytics tool such as Omniture to track how well it performs.
Is your audience responding?
How much time do they spend watching or reading your content?
Do they click through to the next level of information?
Does a prospect that engages with a particular asset eventually buy something?
The best way to answer whether your content is giving away too much is to map that content to closed sales directly.