7 Ways Your Sales Reps Can Help Improve Marketing Strategy

If you’ve been using online resources to boost your marketing, you’re probably seeing a tremendous increase in sales leads. Are you following up effectively?

Your inbound marketing strategy — website, well-targeted content creation and delivery, strategically smart social media participation — can do wonders for your dealership’s reputation and sales. All too often, though, dealerships suffer from a strategic “disconnect” when it comes to converting inbound leads, because sales reps are seen merely as closers rather than an integral part of the entire process.

You’re all on the same team, with the same goals. So why not work together as closely as possible to generate better results?

It all comes down to communication.

You want to create an efficient, streamlined process that sifts and sorts leads so they can be nurtured in a way that’s tailored just for them. Including your sales reps right from the start will make you better organized and more successful. Here are seven ways they can help improve your marketing strategy:

1. Ask them what they do.

Seriously. Have your sales people describe how they work the leads they receive, from any source. That will ensure your marketing people fully understand the “other” end of your sales funnel. Well-designed lead nurturing software can streamline your efforts to rank and distribute leads, ensuring only those ready for personal follow-up make it to your sales reps.

2. Define “good” and “bad” leads.

You can’t rank lead quality without some sort of metrics. Otherwise, your efforts will be random rather than well-targeted. You’ll miss great leads, and you’ll waste time on weak ones that should have been culled. Ask your sales reps to help refine the personas you use for targeting.

3. Are your online offers appropriate?

Online analytics reveal a lot about which marketing content and methods attract leads and how well they drive engagement, but at some point your sales reps take over the conversation. You need online offers that deepen the prospect’s interest, but do your late-funnel offers make it easy for sales reps to follow up personally?

4. Are prospects getting what they expect?

If you’re out of sync with your prospect’s level of interest, you won’t build trust or credibility. Every landing page, call to action and email subject line should clearly indicate the next step, so your sales rep’s call is both welcome and timely.

5. How do they nurture individual leads?

Are activities such as equipment demos or needs assessments effective? What do prospects like best about these customized interactions? Can you make them more effective? Or promote them better with different marketing strategy?

6. Why aren’t sales closing?

Ultimately, this is the clincher. It’s great if your prospects love your content, but if they never decide to buy, it’s time to regroup. What reasons are your sales reps hearing when people stop short of buying? Revising your content or the way you’re delivering it to clearly address those issues should strengthen conversions.

7. Listen to your “unofficial” sales reps, too.

Nearly everyone in your organization has some kind of direct or indirect contact with customers. Asking your non-sales staff about the feedback they receive can provide valuable insight into your audience’s wants and needs — excellent ideas for marketing content topics, and information to hone your marketing strategy, too.

Your sales reps are certainly as invested in the outcome as your marketing team. The more they work in concert, the more effective your dealership will be at closing sales.

While you’re doing a little inventory of your current marketing stratgies, take this opportunity to do full evaluation of your marketing efforts.