Are B2B Salespeople Thought Leaders?

I was reading Opportunity Nurturing: Sending Stuff Isn't Always the Best Solution over on the Openview Blog where Devon McDonald interviewed Trish Bertuzzi, from The Bridge Group Inc. Trish really GETS IT, so I stop whenver I see her mentioned anywhere to see what she has to say.

In response to the question: Who should be sending nurturing content, marketing or sales?

Trish said: "It depends on how far along you are in the sales process. If you are intermediate, then marketing should be coming into play. If your opportunity is later in the sales process, the message needs to be personal from the sales rep because, at the end of the day, it’s all about relationships. Also, the salesperson needs to be viewed as the thought leader, not just the company."

Notice that last sentence? (emphasis mine)

Is this a component of your B2B marketing-to-sales strategy?

Are your salespeople working to be viewed as thought leaders by prospects and customers?

My guess for most of them would be "nope - not interested - need to make quota."

It just so happens that Sales 2.0 Conference is going on this week in San Francisco (#s20c) and there are a few Tweets that back up the need for salespeople to provide more value to buyers:

@barbaragiamanco: Buyers complete 80% of buying cycle b4 interacting with #sales people.#newhandshake #s20c

@LaurenEHarper: #Social is not a quick fix. Reality is it takes effort both on and offline to connect with prospects and make a sale- @barbaragiamanco #s20c

@heinzmarketing: "Ditch the pitch - this is a conversation economy, not a sales pitch economy" @gerhard20 #s20c

@asmithspi: Sales managers typically hire for selling and people skills but customers want industry expertise and business acumen @SolutionSelling#s20c

@scoremoresales: 70% mktg & sales execs rank "inability to differentiate as primary inhibit to growth via @TMcCormick2011 #s20c

Moving on, I was just in a conversation today about how to get the knowledge out of subject matter experts within a company to create bylined articles for them and set them up as thought leaders.

Not everyone is a writer. Not everyone is a publisher. But there's a lot of value lurking in your people that should be extracted and showcased. Not just for your company's benefit, but to help them prove they differentiate your company from others, and that they're worth speaking with because they have fresh, relevant and valuable ideas. The net is credibility and trust for your company AND your salespeople. That's what wins complex sales in today's market.

So, what should B2B marketers be doing?

First of all, it's a mindset: Helping your salespeople be seen as thought leaders also helps with content marketing strategy. It's content, right? Nice, meaty late-stage content that's something other than a solution brief. Think about it.

Secondly, you need to facilitate the process:

• Interview them.
• Find out what they're passionate about - it's really more than just selling your products.
• What issues do they see that they can help customers better understand?
• Why do they believe so strongly in your product? It's deeper than the feeds and speeds.
• What do they see coming down the pike?
• If you put them in a room with a product manager, what kind of conversation develops?
• If you ride along on a customer call, what do you hear?
• Are they active in social media? Can you help them be more effective?

After all, you don't want this to happen:

@sales20conf: #s20c @TomScontras reveals with lols that he got kicked out of #LI group for pushing his message. Ditch the pitch!

@sales20conf: #s20c @TomScontras In person or phone, reps know how to join conversation. But how do you show up in a social convo? @GlanceNetworks

A lot of marketers think helping sales makes them subservient, but you need to get over it. If salespeople are not successful in adjusting to today's buyer and giving them what they want and need, your marketing efforts are headed for the nearest drain.

Can you afford not to incorporate salesperson thought leadership into your marketing-to-sales strategy?

Comments

[Eric Wittlake]

I am all for marketing supporting sales (really, we are all supporting revenue, right?). But saying sales people are thought leaders because they deliver content sells thought leadership short.

Equating delivery to creation takes us back down the path of using other people's content to establish thought leadership. Unless that content references your company, you have become a library and librarian. Valuable? Yes. But a thought leader? No.

Let's focus on driving revenue and supporting sales teams, in all the ways out outline. But let's not sell real thought leadership short in the process.

[Ardath Albee]

Hi Eric,

I think you misunderstood. I never said that salespeople would be thought leaders if they delivered content. What I said was that they have thought leadership ideas that marketers can help them share with prospects and customers by facilitating turning those ideas into content.

Obviously just delivering content doesn't equal thought leadership. And all of your salespeople won't be thought leaders no matter how much you try to help them.

So if this scenario was changed to the CEO who offers great strategic insights on the industry, but is not a writer, then your company wouldn't want to benefit from that, either? Guess I hit a nerve?

[JeanneBrown]

My guess is the customer doesn't care who the thought leader is--the salesperson, the marketer, the CEO--as long as the customer's problem is addressed.

Because nowadays in B2B sales, we're not just focusing on content. We need to add context.

So, if a sales person has a strong relationship and has the customer's trust, then yeah, marketers need to support this in any way possible.

But, we need to tweak the "facilitate the process" questions to focus even more on the customer and each opportunity--adding the context. We have to make sure the salespeople are not just focusing on the offering they're selling, but rather, they're first understanding the customer's wants and needs and then tailoring the offering to them. Marketing can play a key role in adding that context.

[Paul Mosensnon]

This is a wonderful post Ardath. Agree with everything. This also speaks about the role of social CRM, and monitoring your prospect's conversations. Another way for sales people to present content is their online conversations and commenting on what they read. And of course, by seeing what the prospects read and download (seen on CRMS if they have marketing automation)it gives another reason for salespeople to discuss content with their prospects.

[Ardath Albee]

@Jeanne - Thanks so much for your comment. Excellent point about context!

@Paul - Nice to see you here again, Paul! And thanks for your comment. I like your take on social CRM + content + conversations.

[property inventory service]

I thing that closer cooperation of marketing people with sales people will help company to improve their product and deliver higher quality to clients.

[Eric Wittlake]

@ardath421 - You did hit a nerve, rereading my comment, maybe a bigger one than I realized. ;-)

My concern is they need to be able to follow through. If the CEO is a great strategic thinker, but couldn't write a blog or a book, sure, someone else can bring her perspective forward. She can still deliver it, a writer has just translated that delivery into an additional format.

If a salesperson is a source of that strategic insight, and marketing helps bring that forward, that is great. I did read this post, starting with Trish's quote, as being about delivering the content as a part of how the sales person becomes seen as the thought leader. That I don't agree with, but I will keep reading. You have brought my views around before.

I LOVE the thought here that sales needs to deliver value to their prospects and the idea marketing needs to facilitate this, through content and various other resources.

Thanks for the provocative post, challenging me and others to consider our views.

-- @wittlake

[trish bertuzzi]

@wittlake... Let me take a moment to clarify my point and hopefully it will take the pressure off your pain point :)

Here is what I said and Ardath emphasized "the salesperson needs to be viewed as the thought leader, not just the company." Selling is personal. It is a conversation between a buyer and a seller. The deeper that relationship the higher the likelihood that a deal will happen. The point I was trying to make, and my apologies if it was unclear, is that if a salesperson can deepen that relationship by being viewed as a delivery mechanism for value/thought leadership that is a great thing!

It really doesn't matter who writes what.. who cares about that?? At the end of the day all that matters is that great information gets to the right buyer at the right time and trust is created. My advice is to build that trust at the company level but also at the personal level.

Hope this helped!

[Doug Kessler]

Fantastic post.

I've always believed the sales people should position themselves as thought leaders if they want to be successful at consultative selling.

I also believe we could start to see thought leadership and content marketing activity coming from sales budgets.

Sometimes marketing departments are process-bound. If I were a sales guy, I'd want my own blog and content portal.

Who do you want a prospect to call for advice, the marketing team or the sales person?

[Michael Ladd]

Very good post and and me if I was a prospect I like them to call the sales person

Very nice blog will bookmark this place for future reference.

[strata management company]

I like the statement which you have mentioned as" the salesperson needs to be views as the thought leader,not just the company. Your tips on B2B marketing is a great help to know about the marketing details. Thanks for sharing.

[Supply Chain Management]

For me, marketing sets strategy but sales execute strategy. Both of them should work in harmony.