Content Marketing World - Twitter Chat #CMWorld Highlights, June 3, 2014

A1 The awareness continues to rise and sales and marketing alignment is THE topic for 2014. But there's still a LONG road ahead #CMWorld

A1: As marketers, its incumbent on us to show sales we're not just isolated creatives. I've established good relationship w/ sales #CMWorld

A1 It drives me nuts that marketing and sales softwares don't use the same terminology for simple things like leads. #cmworld

A1 Sales and marketing can't operate in a Mars vs Venus environment anymore. #CMWorld

Q2: Why is it so challenging for sales and marketing to work together? #CMWorld

A2 Everyone knows they NEED to work together but each side thinks they are better/right/more important etc. #cmworld

A2 if sales is compensated just for closed deals, and marketing on bringing in leads, for instance, that sets up misalignment #cmworld

A2 Also because marketing tends to leave the room when conversations get into the nitty gritty of sales needs and accountability. #CMWorld

A2: For me, with sales team spread out across the country, communication is harder. Email isn't the same as face 2 face #cmworld

A2: think because marketing is often seen as the fun 'creative' while sales are busting a gut trying to close the deal #cmworld

A2. Marketing ultimately is a service organization designed to help sales, but many marketers don't see it that way. #cmworld

Q3: What are some practical, tactical ways for sales and marketing to work together for better results? #CMWorld

A2: They each feel responsible for leading a customer to the beginning of the sales funnel, and have different tactics for doing so #cmworld

A3 having shared quarterly objectives & goals is a good start for getting sales + marketing on the same page. #cmworld

A3: We created a team that serves as the liaison between sales and marketing, helps with communication, squashes he said/she said. #cmworld

A3: Incorporate content marketing into sales training meetings. #cmworld

A3: Sales are so caught in the moment I flat out ask them periodically what objections they run across, what would give more ammo #CMWorld

A3. Each side needs to check their ego at the door and focus on overall success. Collaboration is extremely powerful. #cmworld

A3 Marketing rep in sales meeting to ID opportunity to collaborate on specific deals. Work together on case studies #cmworld

A3 Help sales understands what's working/not working with analytics so they see the marketing picture. Sales gets stuck too #CMWorld

A3 think of sales people as customers. Create personas of them to understand how they engage with your content #CMWorld

A3 We need to be trainers and mentors to sales on how to use content differently & effectively. The change is new to them them. #CMWorld

Q4: Stats show that the majority of content marketing created is not used by sales. How can both sides improve this? #CMWorld

Q4 Have sales involved from the start in designing the content pieces they most want/need. #cmworld

A4: Sales needs to understand the why of #contentmarketing, not just the what. #cmworld