Joshua Feinberg and Eckart Zollner discuss the critical role of marketing in the sales journey, emphasizing the importance of maintaining engagement through multiple touchpoints.
They highlight that while large conferences can create initial impact, marketing must continue to add value across the 25-30 touchpoints to maintain relevance.
Joshua stresses the need for marketing to guide prospects and anticipate their needs to become trusted experts, potentially reducing their reliance on competitors.
Eckart underscores the significance of brand visibility and credibility, noting that while online interactions are convenient, ultimate trust is built through personal relationships, suggesting that a cohesive team approach in sales and business development is crucial for long-term customer comfort and credibility.
This video is excerpted from the podcast Ep. #60 Eckart Zollner, Business Development of Digital Parks Africa | Data Center Go-to-Market Podcast.
Action Items
- Develop a strategy to stay in front of potential customers and add value at different stages of the buyer's journey.
- Ensure marketing works closely with the AEs, SDRs, and BDRs to align outcomes and build brand visibility and trust.
- Evaluate the impact of field marketing investments, such as conferences, and find ways to maximize the return on those investments.
- Foster a well-coordinated team across sales, business development, and technical functions to provide customers with a comfort factor and credibility.
Outline
Marketing's Role in the Sales Journey
- Joshua Feinberg emphasizes the importance of marketing in aligning with AEs, SDRs, and BDRs to tie outcomes across different stages of the sales journey.
- He highlights the need for marketing to add value at various stages, noting that there can be as many as 28 touchpoints between initial contact and a purchase decision.
- Joshua criticizes the common practice of investing heavily in field marketing at large conferences, which often results in a single impactful event but fails to maintain engagement through subsequent touchpoints.
- He stresses the importance of staying in front of potential customers to earn the right to be seen as an expert and to reduce their need to seek information from competitors.
Building Brand Visibility and Credibility
- Eckart Zollner discusses the critical role of marketing in enhancing brand visibility and credibility, which are essential for building customer trust.
- He acknowledges the growing influence of the online world on the buying process but emphasizes that ultimate trust is built through personal relationships.
- Eckart explains that people need to connect with each other to build trust, which involves multiple layers of people relationships within a well-oiled team.
- He compares a data center decision to a marriage, suggesting that single points of dependency are risky and that a team approach provides a comfort factor and credibility for customers.
Resources
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