Marketing can help sales close deals by providing targeted content that demonstrates the business value of the product or solution.

Sales and marketing often exist in separate corners. The marketing team works to create lead opportunities through content, and the sales team tags in to turn those leads into deals.

But a new survey report shows how this missed connection is having a real effect on businesses’ bottom lines. In fact, 49% of respondents cited a lack of communication as their biggest misalignment between sales and marketing.

But simply sharing marketing content with your sales team isn’t enough. Another new study shows that one of the 3 biggest mistakes salespeople make is not clearly explaining how their solution helps the buyer’s business.

“Buyers amass information that helps them justify their strategic decisions,” says author and University of Southern California Marshall School of Business instructor Steve W. Martin. “In other words, a product’s strategic value comprises the reasons and arguments that buyers provide to senior management and others in the company about why they should purchase a product.”

Let them have content

Strong communication between sales and marketing can help achieve big-picture goals, including:

• mutual understanding of the buyer’s journey
• updated prospect insights that can affect future marketing content
• brainstorming solutions to bottlenecks in the sales funnel

When your company begins to view sales and marketing as a joint unit, you’ll see a wave of data and resources flowing in both directions. While sales can provide deeper insights into audience relationships, marketing can use that data to provide sales with a wealth of targeted content.

Leverage sales reps as industry leaders

Studies continue to show that sales reps are most successful when they are viewed as experts in their field. A 2016 sales optimization report found that 92% percent of buyers engage if the rep is a known industry thought leader.

As thought leaders, members of your sales team should actively engage in discussions on social channels like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter with guidance from your marketing team. Rather than trying to sell, they can use those social spaces to share expert information and to be genuinely helpful.

Arm a sales rep with targeted content to share with prospects during specific moments in the purchase process, and it will advance his or her reputation as a source of knowledge. That can be the key to getting a foot in the door, advancing through the final stages of a purchasers’ decision, or closing the deal.

Related posts:

• How to Land Hard-to-Get Sales Meetings with Targeted Content
• Content Marketers: Don’t Fire Your Sales Staff
• 4 Ways Your Content Can Help the Sales Force