How Strategic Communications Stimulates Sales – Part 2

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about how communications pros can use the tools of our trade to generate sales and optimize conversion through the funnel. It’s a not-so-secret weapon in Game Changer’s arsenal; it’s one of our clients’ favorite services because of the value it brings. We like it because it showcases our total business acumen.

Believe it or not, there’s a second way that strategic communications drives sales. It takes a little longer to build and execute, but it has legitimate staying power. I’ll tell you a story to illustrate it.

In my corporate career, before I founded Game Changer, my teams and I built a series of content marketing programs that articulated how various products and services delivered value to customers. Who in any organization do you think is the best source of information like this? Yep, it’s the sales team. They’re on the front lines, and it’s their job to know what’s happening and to help customers get the most from what they’re buying.

For this reason, I worked hard to build relationships with sales leaders across the entire company. It took some time and effort, because many of them didn’t understand how talking to me would help them generate closed sales. But I earned their trust, and then I asked them for the opportunity to talk to their team members 1:1. After a while, I would get 30-minute meetings with individual members of the sales force – during which I would do nothing but ask questions and listen. We would then generate content pieces that told the stories that I heard.

When we had those pieces in hand, we published them – and I secured time during annual and quarterly sales kickoff meetings to share the content with the sales teams. We helped them see how these new assets could help them progress deals – and then trained them on how to use them to generate revenue.

Believe it or not, it worked. The sales force was sharper, more focused and more effective. Better yet, when our sales functions started to see the value that good content brought them, they started to come to me. They sought me out at the kickoff meetings, emailed me with tidbits now and then, etc. I also got more time on the agenda during the kickoffs to amplify the content, answer questions from the force, etc.

Long story short: I found ways to dig out the best stories about product/service value, we built great assets around it and we trained the sales force on how to use it. What started as an incredibly skeptical sales force turned into some of my best friends at those companies, because we helped them close more deals, earn more money and help the company. Everybody won.

It's a method I’ve used for several Game Changer clients as well, to great success. Helping the sales team help themselves…it’s a really gratifying and fun thing to do.

I talk a lot about how great communications is so much more than publicity, events, crisis work, etc. This is one example. By getting to know a business and understanding how communications adds value at all levels, you can unlock tremendous value.

Keep reading The Game Changer for much more insight to come!