Using Conversation Intelligence to Create Deal-Closing Content

This article originally appeared on MarTech Cube.

When it comes to sales, reps are often at the forefront. They’re responsible for moving prospects through the sales pipeline in order to convert them into customers. While what they do is essential, there’s another team that plays an instrumental role in closing deals: marketing.

From case studies to solution briefs to presentation decks, marketers provide the content and resources sales reps need to navigate buyer interactions successfully. Despite the critical role marketers play in sales enablement, the persistent disconnect between sellers and marketers prevents content from being as impactful as it could be.

The Misalignment Between Sales and Marketing

Content misalignment continues to be an issue for sales and marketing teams. According to Allego research, marketers create about four pieces of content for sales reps per month, but 62% of reps say they need more. Additionally, in a study conducted by the Content Marketing Institute, only 39% of respondents agreed that their sales teams use the right content at the right stages in the buyer’s journey.

From these stats, it’s easy to assume lack of communication is the main reason for the disconnect. But the content itself is also a culprit. Marketers don’t have the insight that sales reps possess in order to develop the just-in-time content needed. As a result, reps have no use for the content provided.

An easy fix would be to increase team collaboration, but that isn’t always feasible with marketing and sales being on varying schedules and often in different locations — even more so now in a hybrid world. Marketers need a way to hear the exact messaging from reps that can inform the content they produce. That’s where Conversation Intelligence comes into play.

A Marketer’s Secret Weapon: Conversation Intelligence

Conversation Intelligence (CI) — artificial intelligence-powered technology that records, transcribes, and analyzes sales calls — is the solution marketers need to create deal-closing content. In addition to helping sales managers coach their teams, CI gives marketers an inside look into sales rep and buyer conversations. There, they learn vital insights, such as the exact language buyers use and pain points they face, how reps describe the company’s value proposition, and how they handle objections.

Here are a few ways marketing professionals can use CI to tap into insights unearthed from sales calls:

Get First-hand Feedback from Customers

To arm reps with content for real-world selling situations, marketing professionals must hear real-world selling situations.

Identify Best Practices from Top Performers

Preserving the knowledge of top sales reps has always been necessary, but with The Great Resignation still looming over the workforce, it’s become even more important. CI zeroes in on the best practices, trends, and talk tracks top performers use during sales calls, letting marketers create collateral that captures their invaluable insights. These insights can be shared with other reps to learn from, apply to their own customer conversations, and close deals — because what works is already identified.

Gain Info on Competitors

As prospects move further down the sales funnel, they’re one step closer to becoming a customer. But before they come to that critical decision, they’re also weighing their options with your competitors. During meetings with reps, they may bring up competitors’ pricing or products. CI can capture precisely what prospects say about competitors, allowing marketers to create content that reflects this information. As a result, sellers will come to meetings better prepared to position their product/service against the competition.

The content that marketers produce is essential to sales teams. But misalignment between both groups threatens its impact in multiple ways, including the content itself. CI is a marketing professional’s best bet for creating content that hits the mark with sellers. Once sellers have valuable content, they’ll be better prepared to keep closing deals, and marketers will know they’ve developed deal-winning assets.

Learn More

Download The Complete Guide to Conversation Intelligence to learn how Conversation Intelligence can help you turbo-charge your sales team, be more effective (and efficient), and drive revenue growth.