Marketers who employ a content strategy are in a constant race to keep up with requests for written pieces. Meeting their own needs for content that helps to address prospect queries and drive marketing qualified leads (MQLs)  — including long-form content like eBooks, blog posts and whitepapers — is a challenge in and of itself, but add in a ghost-writing request from the CEO and a note from the VP of sales asking for a new vertical case study, and it’s a race without a finish line. 

The punch-in-the-gut reality for marketers is that, according to research by SiriusDecisions, up to 70 percent of the content they develop is never actually used by the sales team.

Why? In most cases, sales teams say the content developed by marketers doesn’t speak to their prospects in the right way, or it fails to address the common objections uncovered in the sales process. Ultimately, reps need content that can be used to level up sales conversations, but it’s important to marketers that content stays on message and is designed to help generate qualified leads. 

The good news? When executed in the right way, public relations efforts can produce content that bridges the gap between the two departments. Too often, however, marketers view PR as a news-driven tactic that sits in a silo rather than an additional marketing vehicle to deliver content. With the end result of PR being earned media coverage — whether that be a bylined article, customer story or product feature — the articles should be treated as a content asset for both departments. 

Involving the Sales Team

Salespeople can be great marketers. They know what pain points prospects are experiencing today, which may be different than what they were experiencing last quarter. To get buy-in from sales and deliver content they will use, an informal meeting should be requested with set expectations. Sales team members should not be expected to act as company spokespeople or deliver a polished, written perspective. This meeting is to listen to their authentic responses and seek inspiration for marketing pieces. Their answers can yield ideas for though-leadership content, which can be turned into blog posts or pitched to the media as bylined articles.

Source: “Stats to Inform Your Sales Enablement Strategy”, SnapApp

Good questions to start with include:

  • Why do prospects buy? 
  • Why do we lose?
  • What are the top three customer pain points that our product solves?
  • What common questions and objections do you receive?
  • What shifts or trends in the market are you seeing?

Turning Sales Feedback into Thought-Leadership Pieces 

With information gleaned from a conversation with sales leaders, it’s the marketer’s job to creatively position the answers and shape them into thought-leadership pieces. Using the example questions above, you can dissect the answers and turn them into a compelling commentary. 

For example: Why do prospects buy?

This question uncovers the strengths and differentiators of the organization and product, which can be highlighted in an education piece — rather than an overly self-serving piece about the product benefits. For example, a sales leader who sells to the compliance space may answer the reasons prospects buy: security, scalability and reliability. This can be turned into a piece titled “The Three Most Important Factors In Choosing A Third-Party Compliance Platform,” using those three driving factors. A thought leadership piece like this helps educate prospects about what to consider before buying and, while the piece doesn’t talk about your solution directly, it points to your top three differentiators as the primary consideration pillars.

Source: “3 Tips to Improve Local SEO Efforts”, TotalRetail 

Another example: Why do we lose?

This question intentionally highlights weaknesses, which can actually present opportunities to combat misconceptions or concerns. For example, the sales leader provides feedback that the company often loses because prospects are resistant to the perceived headaches of change and innovation — choosing instead to stick with legacy or self-built systems. In this instance, crafting a piece of thought-leadership addressing the “build vs. buy” dilemma (highlighting, of course, the benefits of the “buy” choice) or “when it’s time to move on from legacy systems” can help open prospects’ minds to the idea of innovating through technology. 

Source: “How to Join the Forces of PR with Content Marketing to Scale Your B2B Brand Value”, Marketing & Growth Hacking

Using PR Coverage in the Sales Process

Compelling touchpoints with prospects are vital to helping SDRs and account reps keep prospects moving through the sales funnel. From eBooks to whitepapers, marketing content is often used in outreach, but long-form content like this takes time to research, draft, design and publish — and may not speak to prospects in a meaningful way once it reaches completion. 

This is where impactful press coverage comes in: it is additional content that can be leveraged as both a marketing asset and a compelling touchpoint for sales. Plus, it’s more powerful than owned content, as press coverage has the third-party credibility of a respected media outlet and now contains messaging that will resonate with prospects because the topic was sourced directly from the sales team. 

Whether sales teams are using media coverage via email touchpoints or social media channels, PR reaches its full potential when it is used as a content asset and shared through sales and marketing channels. The third-party validation from a known press outlet provides a level of credibility and trust on which owned media can’t deliver, and companies who don’t stop after securing the “big hit” will be the ones who close deals faster and come out on top.

About the Author: Lindsey is BLASTmedia’s president and the team’s personal and professional growth champion. She loves working with passionate people, helping our clients succeed, running, reading and watching college football.