How are Sales Strategies and Webpage Strategies connected?

The line between sales and marketing is constantly getting closer as digital tools help bring them closer than ever before. 
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Marketing’s role is to help your sales team get the tools they need to be able to sell. This is no exception for online marketing. Marketing needs to listen to the sales enablement team to understand what will help them close deals, or suggest tools for them to use to do so. 

Before the first contact

The first link between sales and your webpage is when your prospect first lands on your website. In many cases, it’s the first place where your lead will get to know you, and give you valuable insights into their objectives. It is also your first impression and may be one of the main channels where they get in touch with you. This means the information has to be clear and consistent with how you sell your products or services. 

This first contact with your lead won’t involve a salesperson, but a part of the sales process has begun since your lead is actively looking for solutions to a problem they may have. As a matter of fact, studies show that 74% of B2B buyers conduct more than half of their research online before contacting a salesperson. ‍

This means that your first online presentation, just like you would a personal meeting, must be:

1. As easy to understand as possible
   People need to be able to answer what you do in the first minute of their interaction with your webpage. This will tell them if they’ve come to the right place or need to keep searching. By guaranteeing the ease of communication, you’ll also reduce possible frustrations.
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2. Memorable
   There may be multiple competitors who do the same thing as you, so you need to make sure you’ll stay in your lead’s top of mind: is it by sending the correct message? Is it by the tone of communication? Is it because of your cool design? This is something your marketing and sales enablement team can help with.
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3. Convey the most important information first
   People only interact with your webpage for a few minutes (sometimes seconds), so you need to make sure you’re showing the most important information first and using your best arguments to improve the chances of that being read. Salespeople usually know these arguments and will probably be able to tell you what you need to say on your webpage.
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4. Make people want more information (or reach out to you)
   Create appealing Call to Actions that will make your lead want to start a conversation with you.

After the first contact

The first contact implies a clear intention to start a conversation by your lead. In this first contact, your lead has given you permission to get in touch through their contact information.

One of the ways your website can help your sales team after the first contact has been made is by providing accessible information your business can send to your lead to help them learn more about the subject through, for example, blog posts, resources, and guides. This is where content marketing comes in. They’ll not only be nurtured into a more informed decision but also be given a lot of value, which will also create a relationship with them and will ultimately influence their decision-making process. You can read more about how content marketing can support your sales process here.

If you have a marketing automation system, you’ll have another great tool to analyze content behavior. These webpages will be able to tell you what the leads have been doing on your website: what content they’re most interested in, how often they come back to your site, how they interact with it, etc. You can learn more about Marketing Automation here.

In conclusion

Your sales team knows your leads and clients: they know which selling strategies work best and the types of leads they may come across. This information is key to understanding what will work best for your webpage: it’ll give the users an experience that will help them with what they’re looking for and may help them advance faster in their buying decisions. 

Sales enablement teams can also act as an intermediary between Sales and Marketing, that can add to sales and website strategy interactions. They are professionals whose role is to analyze and suggest tools, content, processes and resources to have better selling processes, and can be found inside the company or as an external supplier.

But your sales team needs your webpage as a tool to attract these leads and to give them assets to better communicate with them. Your website will also give them information on their behavior, which will help them understand their leads and how to best access them.