General

How marketing turns sales into B2B influencers

Digital Marketing & Design

4 April 2022

Using B2B influencers to promote a brand, product or service is very popular. This is done a lot, especially in B2C. In B2B, influencing is harder. More knowledge and expertise is needed to convince people, and the sales cycle is longer and more complex. When companies use influencers, they look at external people who activate their followers and network. But that is not what this blog is about. Because it is precisely internally that there is a group that, with the right skills and routine, can make much more impact. We are talking about sales. They have the knowledge and expertise in-house to help the (future) customer and truly be of value. In B2B, influencers don't need a follower base of millions because the relevant target audience is smaller. When creating internal B2B influencers, the collaboration between marketing and sales plays a crucial role. How are you going to turn your sales team into B2B influencers?

Sales' new digital routine

Digital sales is more relevant than ever. Especially during the current crisis, the sales process takes place almost entirely online. This crisis will certainly leave its mark on the way companies and people work and communicate. Now that salespeople can't go out on the road, they must have a structural and professional online presence to keep making an impact. Sharing content, building warm relationships and expanding the network are the first steps to success. Every salesperson must develop these Social Selling skills and actively apply them in a daily routine. Social Selling, now and in the future, is an indispensable part of sales. If you are not yet actively working on this as a salesperson, the new reality after the crisis will be a difficult one.

Social Selling helps sales to be seen as thought leaders within their field, with the aim of generating revenue. Sales' Social Selling activities can take some getting used to for marketing. Marketing has of course been active online for longer, and when sales is increasingly present online, that raises questions. But instead of looking on disapprovingly or bringing in expensive tooling such as employee advocacy programmes, marketing and sales need to collaborate more smartly. Trying to gain control over sales' Social Selling activities doesn't work. It immediately lowers the authenticity of sales and leads to poorer results. The best approach is a collaboration in which marketing uses its channels to turn salespeople into B2B influencers within their field, for their specific network and DMUs.

The role of marketing

From Social Seller to Social Influencer

Reaching online B2B decision-makers and making an impact is not just up to marketing and not just up to sales. Success lies in smart collaboration. What if marketing encouraged Social Selling from the salesperson themselves by increasing the reach and results of the Social Selling efforts, and thereby improved its own marketing results? By putting salespeople forward through marketing channels and campaigns, the impact is big for both marketing and sales. It helps sales reach a larger part of their network and the DMUs and actively generate more leads through their own Social Selling activities. As a result, the number of followers grows and salespeople make the transition from social seller to social influencer within their network and field. It also helps marketing to increase engagement with its online activities through the personal approach, instead of only product push and corporate content. People are more drawn to personal stories and knowledge sharing.

With this approach, sales doesn't have to get involved in marketing. Marketing still runs the marketing channels and sales does its own Social Selling. But marketing helps sales give a boost to Social Selling and at the same time uses the personal approach to improve results and generate more leads from marketing activities.

Benefits and measurable results of this approach

Benefits for marketing with this approach:

Better insights into the target audience and sharper personal content through collaboration with sales
Less criticism of MQLs, because sales is involved
More effective reach, higher engagement and better results thanks to the personal approach
Thanks to good results, more marketing budget and more opportunities
The gap between marketing and sales disappears

Benefits for sales with this approach:

Salespeople have an extra channel, for example in the form of a campaign, to reach their DMUs
The salespeople's funnel is filled with higher-quality leads
Greater reach than through their own profile alone
Transition from Social Seller to Social Influencer
The leads from marketing feel like 'self-generated leads'

How is your organisation going to turn your sales team into B2B influencers?

Sales' new digital routine

The role of marketing

From Social Seller to Social Influencer

Benefits and measurable results of this approach

Merle Andringa