Drive Sales Promotion Results by Marketing to Your Sales Team
Here’s something you might not expect a veteran B2B marketer to say: The success of a B2B sales promotion does not hinge on the prizes, nor does it hinge on the theme. It’s not only about the bells and whistles. It’s not even only about the messaging.
A promotion is, however, dependent on buy-in from your sales team. So what would make a long-time B2B marketer and veteran of countless sales promotions say such a thing? Simple: experience. I’ve seen some of the best promotions with the biggest prizes falter—even the longest-running, most historically successful of promotions—without support from internal sales teams.
As a marketer, the ultimate goal is that your work drives sales, and often, a sales promotion might be one of the biggest projects of your year. Consider these tips to ensure your success with the support of your sales team:
- Tap Your Sales Team
Sales teams are important in almost any B2B marketing effort, but they’re especially important in promotions that push a specific product (whether it’s more educated or sales-focused). The first step is to recognize the value your sales team brings to the table, and to make them feel valued. Your internal sales team should receive their own communications throughout the promotion—a “promotion within a promotion,” that will ultimately encourage them to drive a lot of its success. Send them results and updates throughout the promotion, not only to encourage their competitive spirit, but also to remind them what sales goals they’re working towards. - Enable Your Sales Team
We’ve discussed the importance of sales enablement in the past. With that in mind, just as you might send out weekly or bi-weekly emails to remind dealers to participate in the promotion, you should also send out weekly or bi-weekly emails to remind your internal sales team to encourage sign-ups and participation from the people they talk to every day. But don’t stop there—give them tips and tricks like scripts to use at the end of every sales call. Create unique product flyers and hotsheets that help them sell the product and push it that much harder during the promotion. You might even consider how a concurrent customer rebate could drive sales down the channel. - Incent Your Sales Team
Okay, I take back what I said earlier—prizes do matter. But they don’t matter to only the participants of the promotion. They also matter to your sales team, who must use hard-earned political capital with their customers to push a new promotion on top of their normal, day-to-day sales. Asking for the help of your sales team is great, but be ready to put your money where your mouth is and offer them the incentives they need to push that much harder. Consider that being able to offer huge prizes for participants of the promotion is only as useful as the participation it garners, the leads it generates, and the sales it closes.
Despite the changes in technology, B2B is still about personal interactions and relationship-building. If you’re not engaging the people on the ground to leverage their relationship, your promotion isn’t failing you—you are failing your promotion. Create a “promotion within a promotion” to encourage your sales team to get in on the action.
One guess what’ll happen…
