North American Association of Sales Engineers

North American Association of Sales Engineers

European Association of Sales Engineers

How to Use Content Collaboration to Drive B2B Growth

By Sarah L. Parker

Startup and business growth specialist  www.sarahlparker.co.uk

When I was given the chance to move from Pre-Sales to Marketing, I knew that pulling the teams closer together would be the key to success.  We all know from spending time with friends that we share each other’s voices; we quote them, absorb them, challenge and change them.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably searching for ways to define your growth mindset and make it happen.

There’s no need to look any further than your own organisation.

Don’t limit yourself

It’s no secret that Pre-Sales, Sales and Marketing can find collaboration difficult and sometimes it’s because everyone’s too busy focusing on their own goals.  If we ignore the fact that the boundaries are fictional, we force a false division that limits the creative energy of multiple voices.

Toni Morrison leads us to an enlightening truth when she says “everything I’ve ever done, in the writing world, has been to expand articulation, rather than to close it, to open doors, sometimes, not even closing the book.”

It’s very easy to get stuck in old habits, we all do it.  And it wouldn’t be unfair to say that Sales and Pre-Sales are often seen as driving growth from deep client knowledge whilst old style marketing is seen as an overlay to that knowledge; a sort of sparkle to draw people in. 

Let’s challenge ourselves for a moment

Why not take deep client knowledge from Pre-sales and embed it into content—whitepapers, blogs, articles and podcasts—and also our Sales relationships and Marketing strategy?

Marketing isn’t defined by the conversation. It’s defined by the relationship beneath it.  Brian Solis sees that “We all need more signal and less noise.  We all need beacons.  We all need salient and empathetic voices to move us in a common, rewarding direction.”

But what if we created a new direction ourselves by revisiting, reinterpreting and reflecting back on our own conversations?

Don’t let old rules hold you back

There’s so much more that we can achieve when we decide to define our own future and look again at the old expectations that hold us back.

Then, and only then, can we force a profound questioning of how we use content to participate in the conversations around us.

We can break the mould of what B2B content can achieve.

The tide is turning.  So let’s turn it faster.

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