Why Every B2B Marketer Should Answer Inbound Sales Calls this Quarter

One of my New Years’ resolutions for 2015 was to gain a better understanding of our customers’ needs. So last week, I did something that most marketers rarely do: I answered inbound sales calls.

This might sound unusual, but here at Revenue.io, part of our mission is to fully understand what our customers need to realize their full potential. So our whole team—from our CEO and C-Suite on down to the management level – regularly talks to current and potential customers. This helps us ensure that we’re strategically aligned with our customers’ needs.

The Best Way to Align with Sales: Talk to Your Customers

A lot of analysts talk about the importance of aligning marketing with sales. But without actually talking to potential customers, it’s all-too-easy to become disconnected from the real reasons our prospects pick up the phone to call us.

There’s simply no better way to understand your customers’ needs than to actually talk to them. So this year, I’m challenging all B2B marketers to get on the phone with prospects (or at least listen in on some real sales calls.) Think of it as market research.

I think you’ll find – as I did – that actually talking to prospects and customers makes you a better marketer. Here are a few benefits to talking to customers first-hand.

Gain Insight Into Where to Refine Your Content

While taking inbound sales calls, I had the opportunity to speak to a few customers that were confused about various aspects of our functionality. With great dashboards, I may know which efforts are driving leads, opportunities and revenue. But I would have no visibility into whether required more in-depth information about certain aspects of our functionality. By actually talking to leads, I could identify a few areas where I can provide better education to our base of prospective customers.

Better Understand Your Customers’ Pain

Remember that in this day and age, when a prospect calls you, there is usually a really good reason.  Actually speaking to customers gave me far more insight into the sorts of pain points that were inspiring leads to pick up their phone. That knowledge can help me do a better job of creating content that resonates with other customers experiencing similar pain points.

Learn The Most Important Things to Emphasize

Your sales team may be closing deals, but do you truly know why? Do you know which features your customers truly can’t live without? By taking inbound sales calls, you can gain a better understanding of the features that your prospects are most excited about. It comes as no surprise that they might not be the features that you think are most important.

For more tips on how to better understand your customers’ pain points and needs, check out our free eBook, Socratic Sales: The 21 Best Sales Questions for Mastering Lead Qualification and Accelerating Sales.