As a sales manager, my number one priority is making sure each and every person is continuously improving across the board so that we can blow our goals out of the water.
On my plate, I manage our systems, processes, tools, and people. It’s a lot. And with a growing team and growing set of responsibilities, it becomes more difficult to delve in and uncover real-world coachable moments in the field.
That was until I realized we have an Ion feature to help salespeople, but that could also assist me to uncover coachable moments as well. Enter Ion’s Sell-Side functionality.
What Is Ion Sell-Side?
Content marketing is already a powerful tool to help you drive more traffic to your website. However, while blog posts and video clips are engaging, they’re far from interactive.
Ion Sell-Side empowers your marketing and sales teams to interact with users on a much deeper level. Now, instead of relying on passive data about a user’s session, you can capture information from the content itself.
With Sell-Side, our entire sales team has insight into how our prospects are interacting with our content, and this insight can be used to construct targeted conversations and solutions for our buyers.
A salesperson just clicks a link in our CRM on a lead record and they can answer questions like:
- Exactly which interactive content experiences did the buyer engaged with and what percentage of the content they consumed?
- What potential solutions are configured in our solution finder?
- What problems did they identify in our self-assessment tool?
- What kind of product or service pricing are they calculated in our calculator?
Basically, Ion Sell-Side allows brands to create customized interactive content that’s both fun and engaging while providing you with valuable insights about your audience. Examples of this kind of content can include:
Quizzes
These quizzes can be about fun, random topics, or they can be related to your industry. You can also offer prizes or freebies for those who score well compared to their peers.
Surveys
Surveys have long been a part of the marketing process, but you can make them more interesting and entertaining with Ion. Again, incentivizing your audience to participate with freebies is an excellent way to boost engagement and gather valuable data.
Calculators
Custom calculators can be informative and valuable for your audience. Plus, the more accurate the calculator, the more likely a user will recommend it to others.
Assessments
If your target demographic is trying to decide how to solve a problem, you can have them fill out specific information and generate a customized solution. Interactive assessments can be valuable tools because they qualify your leads automatically and can help your sales team filter the results based on their answers.
Infographics
Typically, an infographic is a static piece that relays information in a fun, visual way. However, you can make these pieces interactive by having users click on a button to see results or enter their expected number before seeing the actual number.
Overall, interactive content is an excellent way to drive engagement and build a buzz in your audience. Plus, since your marketing and sales teams can see the data in real time, you can analyze the results and refine your strategy accordingly.
Merging the marketing and sales departments
It’s a tale as old as time; the marketing department creates engaging materials to drive traffic to the website, only for the sales team to have no idea about what users are seeing or interacting with.
This disconnect can lead to confusion and irate customers who expect one thing but are promised another.
Fortunately, Ion Sell-Side allows you to merge these departments seamlessly within a single platform. Since the marketing team can create these interactive experiences, the data captured by them will be accessible to the sales team automatically.
Even better, the marketing team can make recommendations to sales reps based on a user’s engagement with a specific piece of content.
For example, if the user spent most of their time on a single page or quiz, the marketing department can relay that information to sales. Then, a rep can spend more time delving into that topic to provide more value to the customer.
Overall, since both departments are accessing the same information, there’s no disconnect. Now, the user experience is as seamless as possible, and you can convert more leads as a result.
Generating a sell-side customer journey
Your sales team is likely already familiar with funnels, and it’s likely that you have at least one or more sales funnels you use regularly. What makes Ion Sell-Side so powerful is that it gives your sales team a clear road map of what a lead has done from start to finish.
Because everything is handled through the same platform (and Ion can integrate with other CRM software), sales reps can see the customer journey in real time. From there, they can determine when and how to approach the customer with a sales pitch or additional information.
For example, a sales rep can see when a lead used an interactive assessment tool. Based on the answers provided by that assessment, the rep can reach out to the lead and offer a customized sales pitch. Since the rep can see what information the lead provided, they’re able to figure out the best way to close the deal.
Even if this interaction doesn’t lead to a sale, the rep can still monitor the user’s activity and see what other elements they interact with inside the funnel. Then, the same rep (or even a different one with access to the system) can reach out at another point to nurture the lead as needed.
Comprehensive analytics that converts
Creating interactive content is just the beginning. Some pieces may have a lot of engagement while others barely move the needle. Additionally, sales reps may discover the best time to reach out to a lead through trial and error.
Because Ion Sell-Side is an all-in-one tool, you get access to tons of analytical data to help you refine your customer journey as much as possible.
For example, perhaps you find the best results when reaching out to a lead immediately after they complete a survey. Better yet, you can automate this task to improve your conversion rates and maximize productivity.
Similarly, you may discover that some types of content get more engagement than others. From there, your marketing team can focus their efforts on producing more similar content to maintain momentum and capture more leads.
Finally, your sales team may realize that the information they receive isn’t as valuable as the marketing team thinks it is. So, they can request updated content to capture more data that sales reps can use. This kind of harmony can help your teams work better and close more deals in less time.
Personalized Customer Interactions
Is our team using Sell-Side on their calls? You better believe it, because sales reps that personalize conversations are more likely to close a sale every time.
But my big ah-hah moment was that Sell-Side doesn’t just offer our sales reps insight. It gives me, as a sales manager, an opportunity to see how my team can improve as well.
Recently, I went into our CRM and pulled all of our notes, and paired them up with the corresponding Sell-Side insights. What I uncovered were several opportunities for one-on-one coaching with each of the team members.
I could see where the buyer had surfaced specific information in their digital content interactions, but we missed the mark in using that information to be targeted and relevant.
For example, one buyer who interacted with our pricing calculator requested customized pricing. In the calculator itself, the buyer had configured pricing based on inputs that would put them in a middle-tier version of our product with some custom solutions. But I could see that the sales rep had sent base, entry-level pricing.
Argh! A missed opportunity to meet the buyer at their point of interest & need.
With the Sell-Side visibility, this rep could have molded their entire conversation around forming that custom solution that the buyer needed. Without that molding, several more back-and-forth discover-type interactions had to happen to get to the point that the custom solution could be discussed.
But with Sell-Side, we had the information in our hand to start there and not force the buyer to go backward.
Focusing On What Matters
Sell-Side has changed my ability as a manager to find coachable moments and helps me focus the team on the value of having sales interactions that are contextually relevant.
Sophisticated buyers expect (really, they demand) relevant and targeted conversations. If they don’t get that, they move on.
I know a buyer doesn’t want to start over when they reach out to sales and answer a bunch of our self-serving questions.
By having insight into a buyer’s interaction with our interactive content experiences, a salesperson can be highly specific in their conversations, and I can see where gaps may exist to coach for improvement. I am able to quickly find a critical coaching opportunity without having to shadow calls for hours on end.
Everyone on our sales team has a deep hunger for winning. We love to beat the competition. With Sell-Side, we are able to have those winning conversations, and I am more easily able to help our sales reps do so.
Every day, I become more amazed at the sales enablement opportunities for interactive content and the insights it provides. If you haven’t checked out the benefits that interactive content can provide your sales team or ion’s Sell-Side functionality, you should.
Your sales team will thank you, and then you can thank me.
Boost Your User Engagement With Interactive Content
Are you ready to see how Ion Sell-Side can boost your bottom line?
As you can see, this platform has multiple benefits for both your sales and marketing departments. If you’ve been struggling to bring these teams together, Ion Sell-Side can give you a comprehensive, all-in-one tool to make it happen.
We’re also more than happy to provide a free demonstration of the program and how you can utilize it. Plus, we’ll illustrate the best ways for both departments to use Ion to its full effect. Upgrade your workforce and deliver better content for your customers today!
