In this episode, sales and marketing agency founder Owen Richards shares his unconventional views on sales enablement and the critical role of marketing in it, as well as a new perspective on how sales and marketing work together.
Views on thought leadership
Owen Richards begins by challenging the conventional idea of thought leadership. He argues that being a thought leader is often equated with being an opinionated person, but this does not necessarily correlate with expertise or effectiveness.
According to Richards, the noise generated by so-called thought leaders often lacks validation, and he maintains that there is no direct connection between their personal brand and their actual capabilities.
Sales Enablement: Beyond Qualifications
Richards emphasizes that selling is not just a qualification; It is an art that requires understanding and skill. He points to the lack of formal training or clear standards in sales, creating a gap in distinguishing between effective and ineffective sales practices. Marketing can play an important role in this gap, he suggests.
The role of marketing in sales support
The crux of Richards’ discussion revolves around how marketers can help drive sales. He suggests that marketing teams can provide valuable resources and insights to help sales teams better understand their products and services. This understanding is critical for salespeople to effectively communicate with prospects and close deals.
Check out the video for more details and the full podcast (link below the video) for the entire insightful conversation.
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Episode details, guest information and referenced links
Episode #65
Guest social media profiles:
MarketingProfs resources referenced in the show:
“In B2B News” article referenced in the show:
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Transcript: Strengthening Sales Success – The Role of Marketing in Driving Sales, with Owen Richards
Welcome to MarketingProfs’ “Marketing Smarts Live” show and the Marketing Smarts Podcast. Here we dive into B2B news, resources, valuable guest content, and more every week.
If you’re a B2B marketer looking for a place to learn, stay updated, and have some fun along the way, grab a drink, a notepad, or at least a writing utensil and welcome to the trade show!
Hello to all my Marketing Smarts Live viewers today. I am very happy to bring you with me
This week’s topic is all about strengthening sales success – the role of marketing in sales enablement.
So if you’re ready to start learning, buckle up and get ready to rock and roll.
Hey, I’m your boy George B. Thomas, speaker, trainer, catalyst and host of this show, the Marketing Smarts Live Show as well as the Marketing Smarts Podcast found on your favorite podcast app.
Our guest clips today are brought to you by none other than Owen Richards.
Owen Richards is the founder and CEO of Air Marketing, an end-to-end sales and marketing agency based in the UK.
Air’s 100-person team provides a mix of outsourced sales and marketing services, working with B2B SaaS, technology and financial companies to drive growth and revenue.
Owen advises companies on their go-to-market strategy and has a real passion for tackling the complexities of early go-to-market in startup environments, with a particular focus on people, culture and strategy.
Remember, Owen Richards’ clips today are from the full Marketing Smarts podcast episode. If you would like to listen to the full interview with Owen Richards and myself, be sure to tune in to the Marketing Smarts podcast, link to the full show will be included in the description below after the live show ends.
In this episode I speak again with Owen Richards about strengthening sales success – the role of marketing in sales support.
In this first clip, I ask Owen: When we talk about sales alignment and when we talk about sales enablement, what do you think is the biggest problem that most companies face and where should they start?
Here are his thoughts:
Owen: I get asked similar questions fairly regularly. I always assume the same reaction. How involved are the sales staff in the definition? What you see is brilliant marketing leaders developing a strategy to support their sales team in isolation. You would be surprised how common this is. They do it, they build it without talking to the sales team or with limited conversation about what prospects are actually looking for, what they’re missing in the conversation, and what you need to be more successful. I think it’s fluctuating a lot at the moment. I think it’s more important than ever that collaboration in this process is about giving sellers a voice in the process so they can bring what they need.
I think that’s where it starts, with the nature of the brand, as I mentioned before. Set the right starting point and the rest will flow from there. What happens is that marketing teams end up going to sales teams: “Do you think this will help?” And the sales team says “yes” because they’ve done a lot of work on it and can’t say “no.” Surprise, it doesn’t go anywhere, it fails.
I think when you say it out loud, it’s obvious to start with the basics and get it right from the start, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t do it. We talk about templates, tips and tricks, it’s about the simplicity of having a plan and sticking to it.
Coming back to quality versus quantity, scope and quality of content, you need to make sure you don’t just produce content once and then nothing of value. I preach to our clients and sometimes to my team: it’s okay to publish content just for the sake of content, that’s okay. Is the work perfect? No. But we need to be seen and heard. Don’t post bad content, but not every post and video will be your best post. Be okay with that.
So there are a few things that I find come up most often in my conversations.
Are you building insulated?
Do you have a plan?
Is your content created for marketing and sales success?
Type the answer to that in the chat section or let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #mpb2b and of course tag me @georgebthomas.
We will return to Owen Richards and his thoughts on “Strengthening Sales Success – The Role of Marketing in Sales Enablement”. But first I have to ask…
Are you part of the MarketingProfs community? If not, become part of the MarketingProfs community by going to mprofs.com/mptoday – that’s mprofs.com/mptoday.
Now it’s time for one of my favorite sections…
In B2B News we talk about current B2B news or really important tips that we find in the Google News tab about you and your B2B company. This week the title is…
6 B2B Sales Strategies to Stay Ahead and Get More Customers by Manas Jha
By personalizing your B2B sales strategy, you connect with your customers and increase your sales.
It helps you stand out from the crowd and achieve better customer loyalty.
If you are a sales company or an entrepreneur looking to get into B2B sales, start implementing these six B2B sales strategies.
Companies that want to be successful in a competitive market need B2B sales strategies.
At least five follow-up conversations result in a sale in 80% of business-to-business transactions. This underlines the need for perseverance in B2B sales.
To read this article, click the link below when the live show is over.
So let’s get back to Owen Richards and his “Marketing Smarts” podcast episode.
In this clip, I wanted to ask Owen to share his thoughts on marketing, sales, and sales marketing. How can they think or understand both sides of the fence?
Here’s what Owen wanted to share.
Owen: I think it’s a similar point but in reverse, where again it’s about empathy and understanding. In my opinion, marketers should sell, marketers should be involved in the sales process. The moment you do that, it’s an a-ha moment where the marketer says, “Oh, I see. We have to use that. This is what we have to do.’ I think there will be more hurdles if you don’t understand the process.
So I advise people to get involved in the sales process. Take some demos, take some experiences, handle inbound requests, make some cold calls, have some conversations, know what it feels like, know what it looks like. You can foresee many hurdles because you have felt them and seen them and think about them before overcoming them. The worst thing is when you hit a hurdle and don’t know it’s coming. If you know the hurdle is ahead, plan for it well in advance.
It’s a fundamental thing. If you get the groundwork right, if you get the plan right from the start, it will be much easier to put the rest into action. Then I think it’s about getting buy-in from sales, making sure that your sales team is consuming the content that you’re creating, and making sure that they’re pointing people to the right things, that they’re pointing to the why, why are we doing this , why are we changing the way you sell, why are we asking you to follow this process that you didn’t follow before, why is this important? Since salespeople are selfish by nature, we want the tools to sell and in the easiest way possible. If you are asking me to do things in a new way, I need to understand why that is.
I think there are a few things.
Is your foundation right?
Do your departments have empathy for each other?
Do you know both sides of the fence?
Is this even possible in your organization?
We’ll get back to Owen Richards in a few minutes, but first it’s time for something…
Dope B2B learnings from the Vault of MarketingProfs articles
That’s right, it’s time to dig into the treasure trove of valuable information and pull out two golden nuggets that will help you become a better B2B marketer.
This week’s first article is: Good or Bad? What we can learn from Nicolas Cage about sales enablement by Cathy Colliver
When you’ve worked with sales teams for over a decade, you have time to stop and think. Especially when advertising technology and digital marketing have gone too far.
Sales enablement is like a dear aunt who loves you but can also ask super uncomfortable questions.
And sales is like the enemy whose social skills you admire. Suffice it to make you wonder if it would be easier to go it alone in marketing. (Psst: It’s not.)
This week’s second article is: Five Ways to Improve Product Marketing and Sales Enablement Collaboration to Increase Sales by Rita Patel Jackson
Product marketing and sales enablement teams share a common goal: helping sales teams sell more. Each team plays an important role in increasing sales.
Product marketing focuses on developing content assets that the sales team can use throughout the buyer journey, and sales enablement ensures sales reps know how and when to use that content to deliver great buyer experiences and more deals to complete.
In successful companies, product marketing and sales enablement act as extensions of each other.
This level of collaboration and alignment improves the effectiveness of each team and in turn ensures the sales team is well-equipped to drive sales.
Would you like to continue learning? If so, check out the links in the description below after the live show to get access to both great MarketingProfs articles.
OK, back to Owen Richards… Let’s dive back into this conversation about empowering sales success – The Role of Marketing in Sales Enablement
In this clip, I wanted to ask Owen what sales enablement success looks like. How do we know we have reached sales enablement nirvana in B2B marketing?
Here’s what he had to share.
Owen: I think I have a really good answer to that. In my opinion, you know you’ve been successful when two things happen.
When marketing celebrates a closed deal. Right now, the company is celebrating the seller’s deal. But when marketing celebrates it and is celebrated for it, then you’ve achieved that success, you’ve gotten to the point where people are getting it. A big customer comes through an inbound inquiry, the salesperson doesn’t create the content that suggests everything to get them there in the first place and then move them through the sales process. They support the theory, but have everyone else with them as passengers to support them.
You get to the finish line and most companies say, “Well done, George. You made a deal.” No, you didn’t. The team made a deal and marketing was involved. It’s natural in the culture. It takes some practice first, but when marketing celebrates and celebrates itself because it cares about a closed deal at the moment, then to me that is success.
I think the same applies the other way around. When sales starts thanking marketing or seizes a great opportunity at the top of the funnel and does so on their own initiative, you know you’ve reached the point of success.
Does your marketing team celebrate when a sale is closed and won?
Is it the “team” that closed the case or an individual sales rep?
Does it feel natural? Do you do this in your organization?
Does your sales team thank you for the great leads generated?
We’ll hear some words of wisdom from Owen Richards here in a few minutes, but now it’s time to shine the spotlight on you, the MarketingProfs community. Yes, time for…
From the #MPB2B community
We’ve searched far and wide in the #MPB2B universe to find amazing information and conversations to bring to the masses.
So firstly, make sure you use the hashtag and secondly, make sure you are having fun and adding value to the community.
We will then put you or your crew in the spotlight on the show. This week it is…
MarketingProfs
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Learn with us:
? How content drives the rest of your marketing functions
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#mpb2b #b2b #marketing #seo #audience research
But you have to look at the description and click the link to view the post and read or learn more!
Marketing Smarts viewers, I have to ask: will you be next in the spotlight?
Remember, community, use the hashtag #mpb2b on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter and let your awesomeness be spotlighted on the next or future episode of the Marketing Smarts Live show!
Pro tip: It won’t hurt if you tag me in your post too. I’m @georgebthomas on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Okay, let’s go back to Owen Richards and say a few words of wisdom on the subject “Strengthening Sales Success – The Role of Marketing in Driving Sales.”
Here’s what Owen Richards wanted to leave us with…
Owen: You talked about the human element in a previous interview you did. I gave a talk on sales leadership at a conference a few years ago and talked about how to lead your sales team like a human being. I think that’s really poignant for me. I think this applies to everything we do as leaders, be it marketing, sales or overall sales. It’s about leading as a human being and truly caring about the people on your teams. If you do that, you will always get a better result.
I think for me, as the founder of an agency that aligns sales and marketing, we see that these things go hand in hand. I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly in it, and the most important thing I can see where success has been achieved is where people care about each other, where people are aligned, where the relationships are genuine , Where they want to work together, where they are a real team, leadership always matters. When you do leadership right, it means having a clear vision, really caring about people, giving them the support they need, giving them clear direction, giving them feedback, being honest with them be, not shying away from difficult conversations and so on things, if you do that right and show empathy and a desire to lead in that way, then you will be successful in all areas of sales, marketing, empowerment, alignment and all other areas of the business always achieve a better result. That’s the philosophy I try to live by.
Are you leading your sales team like a human?
Do you really care about the people on your teams?
Are the relationships genuine, aligned and healthy?
Man, I love these wise words!
Did you enjoy today’s trip? Let us know and use the hashtag #mpb2b on the platform you join us on.