How Inbound Marketing & Sales Enablement Helps Sellers Help Themselves with Deb Williams

In this episode, we’re exploring how a solid inbound marketing and sales enablement initiative can help salespeople better figure out the areas they are looking to target.

We ask questions like:

• How do you align an inbound marketing initiative with your overall business goals?

• What role does content play in an inbound marketing strategy?

• And how do you measure the success of your inbound marketing campaigns?

Deb Williams, General Manager at Federated Media, is joining Dani to help break it all down. Deb brings up some great points, like:

• Why a great inbound marketing and sales enablement strategy can help salespeople better articulate what they’re trying to sell.

• Why it’s important to view your company’s website as a resource manual that’s there to help solve your ideal customer’s problems.

• And finally, why it’s essential to have buy-in from your salespeople when adopting a new inbound marketing and sales enablement initiative.

“We Had the Content, But We Didn’t Have the Strategy”

Kicking off the conversation, Dani says, “Tell us about your experience using inbound marketing as a strategy for lead gen and business development. What’s your role and background with all of this?”

“We started at the worst time possible,” Deb says. “It was the beginning of 2020, so that was an adventure in and of itself...but in terms of my role, as the leader of this [initiative]...we had been writing content on our website for a couple of years. We had a new blog go up every single week, but we didn’t have a strategy to go with it.

“It became obvious that we needed to do something to make sure we were maximizing the information that we were placing on our website.

“We know it’s important to have quality content on your website to position your company and your individual salespeople as knowledgeable. We have the resources to help businesses meet their needs, but we just needed to take the next step, and that’s where our partnership with LeadG2 started.”

Content Helps Sellers Help Themselves

“How were you finding new prospects before this?” Dani asks. “What were the needs and problems you had?”

“We used the phone book,” Deb says. “The sellers were just figuring out what particular business area they would like to target and then would just go after those leads.

“The challenge was that, especially with our company, we’re no longer just selling radio. We have all these other things that go with radio, make it work better, and show ROI. We’re very innovative, and it’s a challenge to keep your sellers trained on all of these new things. I mean, you train them, but then are they trained enough to be able to relay that information appropriately and accurately to a client or a prospect?

“That’s where this content comes in. This content is designed to show our innovation and help our reps help themselves with their clients and prospects to understand our more about our capabilities as a company.”

“Think of Your Company’s Website as Resource for Business Owners...Not a Showpiece”

“You guys at Federated Media had a website when we first started working together, but I know that we’ve really built on that over the years,” Dani says. “Tell us a little bit about the strategy and why it was important to you.”

Deb says. “The website is particularly funny. I think a lot of media company websites focus on ‘how great we are,’ and ours did. It showed how great we are; we had a section for job postings and a timeline of our company. And those things are still there, but when a business owner comes to your website, they’re not looking to see how great of a company you are. They’re looking to see if you can solve their problems. That’s why we’re there.

“Our individual radio sites are for listeners to be able to stream the radio station, to see what events are coming up, and to get more personal information, maybe, about on-air talent.

“A corporate site needs to be: What are the pain points that you’re going to solve for me?

“So, really, where the website is concerned, it was a total shifting of the mind on what it is meant to be.

“It’s not a showpiece for ownership; it’s a resource manual for business owners and marketers.”

Get Buy-In from Your Sellers When Starting an Inbound Marketing & Sales Enablement Initiative

“Is there any closing advice that you would like to give to other businesses who may be interested in starting an inbound marketing and sales enablement initiative?” Dani asks.

“I would make sure that the sellers understand that...we, as a company, are investing in this resource for them and they don’t get to pick and choose whether or not they use it,” Deb says. “You have to get that buy-in. It has to come down from the top of the company saying, ‘This is what we’re doing. This is an investment in you.’

“That would be my biggest piece of advice.”