The questions your website answers shows the status of your sales and marketing alignment
Your prospects have questions that either move them forward toward a "yes", or hold them back. Some of those questions are posed directly to sales, but others lie under the surface or are only shared inside the buying committee. The way you address those questions tells the whole story about the status of your marketing and sales alignment - are you still living in a world of isolated silos or is the team working together for growth?
Sales knows the answers but that doesn't speed up your pipeline
Buyers have increasingly wanted to get their questions answered before they talk to a salesperson. Before the pandemic, it was a big trend, but the absence of in-person meetings and tradeshows have moved the needle much faster. Today, buyers of all types expect to get their questions answered online before they talk with a salesperson.
The bank of experience and responses that lives in your sales team holds the key to unlocking growth. By the time customers actually talk to the salesperson, most of the questions have been asked and answered. In many cases, those questions have been answered by your competitors or sources of mixed truth.
Marketing and sales alignment puts the system, content, and culture in place that makes sure that the insights from your sales team shape the buyer experience that in most cases begins online.
Both the obvious questions and the ones they'd never ask
Many of the obvious questions like price, time-cost, and comparative value are the first line of questions that prospects want to answer before they engage with a salesperson. But there is a deeper set of questions that are even more powerful.
Customers are asking questions about trust and risks not only about their company but also about how the purchase would impact their own role and status.
The old model was to keep all the answers close to the vest, but with hyper-networked customers, that no longer works. They want and will find answers before they engage.
Take the Alignment Test by answering these single questions:
Do your prospects have an experience online that engages them around their most important questions?
Your answer will tell you whether you've fully aligned marketing and sales. Effective alignment addresses culture, process, and content to address the growth requirements of today's buyers.
Should I just have a big FAQ section?
Simply listing frequently asked questions is a reasonable idea, but without the give and take of marketing and sales working together, it will never reach the depth that buyers want and need.
Few people who rely upon FAQs actually answer the real questions that buyers want to answer.
The process has to include not only a way to communicate the answers but a much deeper grasp of the bigger questions that need to be answered. Marketers cannot do that alone, which defines one of the reasons why a system and culture of cooperation has to be made practical for marketing and sales.
The more you align your sales and marketing, the more you'll find alignment with new customers.
