It’s an unfortunate reality for many businesses – the sales and marketing departments seem to be at odds with each other. In an effective organization, the two need to work together seamlessly to have one team fill in where the other may need a helping hand. A huge part of integrating an inbound sales process is to sell to people who are ready to be contacted, not people you want to sell to. For some organizations this requires a shift in the sales cycle. How can you develop your inbound marketing tactics for your organization? Well, here are 5 ways! 
1. Create More Qualified Leads
Use your collateral to your advantage. Create content that will resonate with leads so that your sales people can connect with customers. For example, if a member of the sales team connects with a possible lead and the conversation isn’t going in the right direction, they can offer to call back and connect after the potential customer has a chance to go over some of the valuable marketing collateral.
2. Define Customer and Buyer Personas
Before appealing to the right audience, you need to identify the correct audience. Understanding your customers will help ensure that your marketing strategy truly resonates with the solution they’re trying to resolve. Not only do you want to identify personas, but you also need to define what makes your organization a good fit. Once you can answer key questions, you can more effectively target the right people.
3. Curate and Publish Valuable Content
We’ve discussed how effective content helps give your sales people leverage, but it has other benefits as well. Sharing the content you create helps to position your organization as a thought-leader in the space. Building on your reputation will encourage your customers to come to you.
4. Integrate your Online and Offline Marketing Activities
Do you attend trade shows or conferences? If you look for new business at these types of events, you need to capitalize on where your ideal customers may be. Collecting business cards or email addresses at these events helps to improve your prospects, and you can also include them in your sales cycle. Use this information to get people into your email marketing campaigns, and pass on interesting articles or premium content.
5. Provide Lead Intelligence to the Sales Team
An effective inbound marketing process provides information to salespeople so that they can structure sales conversations to reflect the buyer’s situation and priorities. Using inbound marketing software, your sales people can learn more about page views on your site, blog posts viewed, and other demographic information. Taking this information into account will hope the sales conversation to be focused and tailored to the buyer’s needs.
By implementing a sales process to serve buyers more effectively, your team can improve the sales cycle and increase closing ratios. This information will help structure your sales process to help your team sell more, and also integrate effectively with the marketing team.