How Marketers Can Overcome Challenges in the Field

Marketers are not immune to the challenges of selling today. But sales challenges like limited access to customers, increased market competition or saturation, or a lack of visibility into sales activities present marketing teams with an need to optimize collateral for the sales process in more holistic, long-term ways. Forward-thinking marketers are collaborating with sales colleagues to overcome these challenges through content development, deployment, and measurement.

Common Challenges for Marketers:

Limited Access to Customers
Customers are busier and more occupied than ever. Advances in mobile technology and global connectivity have led to business being conducted anywhere and at any time, which often forces reps to pitch buyers in unorthodox locations or in situations where time is extremely limited.

Market Saturation
Heightened competition among companies, products and with sales people compounds the challenges of limited customer availability. Sales reps are increasingly in positions where they’re trying to differentiate themselves, their products and solutions from potentially dozens of competitors. Marketing teams can boost market differentiation exponentially by providing reps with dynamic, customized and relevant presentation media.

Field Visibility
As the field becomes increasingly mobile, global, and wireless, marketers and decision-makers have less visibility into what content, tools and processes work in the sales field. This puts pressure on the sales teams to provide valuable, in-depth qualitative feedback when they return from the field. However, marketing teams can promote an environment of transparency and collaboration by proactively seeking out sales team feedback during the initial stages of content development and conception.

The more proactive marketers can be in addressing the variety of challenges preventing reps from closing sales sooner or more often, the greater the impact marketing can have on helping the company achieve its’ revenue goals. By taking a holistic and collaborative approach to considering which content formats to utilize, how they should be deployed and how content effectiveness should be measured, marketing teams will be able to better align their efforts with the sales process and deliver what their reps need to drive more sales.