Sales enablement. Content marketing.
Anyone still unsure about the link between the two needed only to have their sights set on the quiet banks of Lake Erie last week, where the world’s biggest annual content marketing event was taking place.
For the fourth consecutive year (I have the ribbon to prove it!), I made my way to Cleveland for Content Marketing World. It was a great event as always, and more so than any other year, I couldn’t help but notice the common thread of sales enablement being weaved from session to session.
It seemed like more than a few speakers went out of their way to emphasize things like the importance of “compelling sales content”, “content-alignment with sales” and “having better sales conversations with customers.”
One session I attended in particular tackled this topic head on. Titled Moving from Content to Conversations: Content’s Role in the Sales Enablement Process, it featured a panel discussion with a focus on why “brands need to create conversations with customers and prospects, not just content.”
Related Article: 3 Reasons Content Marketers Fail at Sales Enablement
One takeaway from the session was that gearing content only toward external audiences isn’t enough.
“The first step for marketers is to understand that sales is really part of your audiences. If your organization hasn’t done that, then you have a problem,” said Gary Van Prooyen, senior director of global brand and content operations at Motorola Solutions.
He explained that even though marketers have been creating tons of content for years now, sales teams had often been almost an afterthought. Marketers now need to understand what it takes to create the type of content that will not only capture attention, but also move the conversation forward.
“The narrative has become more complex,” Gary said. “Years ago, salespeople could just take out a product and a spec sheet. Now, we need to elevate that conversation to the C –level. Talk about the big picture, five-year visions – we weren’t doing that.”
Why Marketers Need to Create Conversations – Not Just Content
