With each passing day the gap between sales and marketing narrows.
More than any other department, sales personnel have raw exposure to your target audience. The marketing team on the other hand, positions your organization to solve your customers' challenges, making this merge a natural one.
Two of the most valuable things these departments can work on together are developing personas and sourcing ideas for content. Ann Smarty at the Content Marketing Institute explains why the two teams should work together:
By knowing the wants, needs, and even demographic information of a customer base, content marketers can better personalize their efforts. And with your sales team being on the frontline of the customer interaction, there’s no better department from which to start your persona development.
Collecting data through surveys and the like is necessary, but your sales team provides the thinnest membrane between you and your target audience. (To avoid flimsy marketing/sales meetings, use these steps to achieve goal-oriented content marketing success.)
The reason why sales are great at persona development is the same reason they're great for sourcing content ideas—they know the customer and their challenges. If you're in the same boat as the 90% of business bloggers Curata surveyed that post a fresh blog at least once a week, you can use as much help as you can get.
For more of Smarty's take on how sales and marketing teams can work together, click on the link below.
