As a former-salesman-Turned-marketer, I have a different POV on this. I think the smartes sales people will realize that online media is actually a leverage for their sales skills and use it to spread their impact - that was my journey at least.
The magic happens in the middle of sales and marketing efforts - where events, valuable content and lead magnets open the door and sales take that door and get in. Most marketers are too passive, most BDRs too agressive. Those who are in the middle of Both worlds are able to generate new leads and business smoothly, without being too pushy.
I’d even go as far to say it could be a new function - Digital Business Development.
Now, in ideal world what you are saying is the next level of AEs after they got their biz dev mojo back. You can not generate business without a personal brand; a personal brand will simply bring more value for the company you are working for, as well as get you higher pay and access.
AEs who work for companies with fully functional marketing, should absolutely leverage this marketing to build their own brand, book of business and so on so forth. Now, do they do it now? They don't. What can be done for the people to start noticing and pursuing these opportunities? Don't have the answer yet.
Yes, although the idea of Digital Business Development to me goes much deeper than just the traditional "post on LinkedIn and build a personal brand" notion.
What I mean by Digital Business Development is that you can use speaker invitations to your company's events as a way to open the door to Tier 1 accounts. You can personally invite people that you wanna build relationships with as attendees to the events, starting the conversation with value, not sales. You can build connections with complementary companies, associations and communities. You can get to podcasts or conferences as a speaker. You can use LinkedIn automation to launch an industry research and use that to start a conversation that feels natural.
The whole idea is to have something (an event, research, podcast...) that will allow you to start conversations without being pushy or salesy.
Using marketing activities to start non-sales conversations and then turn them into sales opportunities - that's what I mean by Digital Business Development.
I plan to work on the idea and put it into the world because I'm so excited about all the possibilities.
Regarding your question - I think salespeople must realize that you can leverage internet to build relationships even without a personal meeting. And least that's what worked for me. The idea of digitally leveraging my natural charisma and sales skills made me switch from sales to marketing.
And although I'm officially marketer now, I still consider myself a sales person. That's what I like to do the most. Marketing is just a vehicle to scale the impact.
As a former-salesman-Turned-marketer, I have a different POV on this. I think the smartes sales people will realize that online media is actually a leverage for their sales skills and use it to spread their impact - that was my journey at least.
The magic happens in the middle of sales and marketing efforts - where events, valuable content and lead magnets open the door and sales take that door and get in. Most marketers are too passive, most BDRs too agressive. Those who are in the middle of Both worlds are able to generate new leads and business smoothly, without being too pushy.
I’d even go as far to say it could be a new function - Digital Business Development.
What do you think Michael?
You are spot on, Rene, I just called this function not Digital BDR just Marketing BDR, wrote about it here -> https://www.fromzerotoagencyhero.com/p/28-why-sales-owned-organizations
Now, in ideal world what you are saying is the next level of AEs after they got their biz dev mojo back. You can not generate business without a personal brand; a personal brand will simply bring more value for the company you are working for, as well as get you higher pay and access.
AEs who work for companies with fully functional marketing, should absolutely leverage this marketing to build their own brand, book of business and so on so forth. Now, do they do it now? They don't. What can be done for the people to start noticing and pursuing these opportunities? Don't have the answer yet.
Yes, although the idea of Digital Business Development to me goes much deeper than just the traditional "post on LinkedIn and build a personal brand" notion.
What I mean by Digital Business Development is that you can use speaker invitations to your company's events as a way to open the door to Tier 1 accounts. You can personally invite people that you wanna build relationships with as attendees to the events, starting the conversation with value, not sales. You can build connections with complementary companies, associations and communities. You can get to podcasts or conferences as a speaker. You can use LinkedIn automation to launch an industry research and use that to start a conversation that feels natural.
The whole idea is to have something (an event, research, podcast...) that will allow you to start conversations without being pushy or salesy.
Using marketing activities to start non-sales conversations and then turn them into sales opportunities - that's what I mean by Digital Business Development.
I plan to work on the idea and put it into the world because I'm so excited about all the possibilities.
Regarding your question - I think salespeople must realize that you can leverage internet to build relationships even without a personal meeting. And least that's what worked for me. The idea of digitally leveraging my natural charisma and sales skills made me switch from sales to marketing.
And although I'm officially marketer now, I still consider myself a sales person. That's what I like to do the most. Marketing is just a vehicle to scale the impact.