Spoon-Feeding Sales, What’s On Your Menu?

Org charts, contact information, and social media links—the trifecta of what some marketers think is adequate background on executive decision makers—is not enough if the plan is for sales to have productive business conversations.

Savvy salespeople get this. They know it’s worth their time to do their homework before these critical executive-level conversations. They seek key nuggets of information that help them connect the dots between a customer’s business priorities and what they are selling. They do this for a reason. It works. 

Marketers can add tremendous value for salespeople by "spoon feeding" them focused customer insight that helps them tee up substantive business conversations. (By the way, while the term "spoon feeding"  might sound derogatory to the outsider, it is  commonly used out of great respect for salespeoples’ time and the desire to save them from having to sift through mounds of content and data.)

So yes, you should still let them know that John Doe is the new CIO of Acme Company. And you should give them John's org chart, contact info and LinkedIn link.

But what if you could pass on the following?

• John has been a big proponent of outsourcing throughout his career
• John had a strong relationship with IBM while working at his last company
• John was hired by the CFO to lead a major, cloud-centric IT infrastructure overhaul

Marketers can be real heroes to sales by providing this type of information on their most important accounts and contacts. In absence of this, top salespeople will do this homework on their own, while the rank-and-file may not do it at all.

Be a hero to sales; add customer insight to your “spoon-feeding” menu!