We have all heard the term sales quotas. Now we are going to hear more about content quotas.
According to Revenue.io, “a sales quota is a specific target that sales reps need to hit within a given amount of time. Quotas are nearly always numerical, in that they must be a certain dollar amount of contracts signed, revenue generated, or count of goods sold.”
The site goes on to say, “sales reps, sales managers, and sales teams all have quotas. They are the standard by which performance is measured in both B2C and B2B sales. Quotas serve as benchmarks for evaluation, performance improvement, and testing. Quotas are also typically compensated, so reps have an incentive to achieve them.”
Recently, Marcus Sheridan, an industry veteran when it comes to content marketing, has been using the term content quota. This does not refer to the amount of content placed on a website on a set schedule. Instead, it suggests that salespeople, realizing the value and power of content marketing, will want to publish credible, quality, informative articles, and content, to help boost their own sales figures.
This is where content marketing and the jansan industry come into play.
Content marketing is a terrific way to discuss an issue such as cleaning and health related challenges in a facility. And it pays off.
“The essence of this strategy,” writes Joe Pulizzi, the author of Epic Content Marketing, “is the belief that if we, as businesses, deliver consistent, ongoing valuable information to buyers, they ultimately reward us with their business and loyalty.”
This means when you establish yourself as an expert, your customers and potential customers will start to relate to you as a credible resource on those topics. And when you think about it, who better to do this than the people who are out marketing these products day after day? Invariably, they know the products they sell better than anyone else.
When salespeople become regular content providers, they shift from selling to teaching. Teaching their customers techniques, procedures, services, and products that can help them operate their business and facilities in a more cost-effective and efficient manner can be immensely powerful.
The salesperson has now become a guide, an instructor, a teacher, and an expert. This helps build trust and loyalty, helping to make the salesperson a partner in their customer’s business. This is what effective content marketing is all about.
Further, according to sources such as Hubspot, a leading inbound marketing firm, such content does lead directly to sales:
- Sixty-one percent of Internet users research products online before making a buying decision.
- Buyers go through about 57 percent of the purchasing process before ever talking to the sales department.
- Website conversion rate is six times higher for content marketing adopters than non-adopters. (The conversion rate refers to converting a prospect into a customer.)
- Brands relying on inbound marketing save more than $14 for every new customer acquired.
- Inbound marketing delivers 54 percent more leads into the marketing funnel than traditional outbound marketing.
- Nurtured leads (customers cultivated due to reading quality content) make 47 percent larger (costlier) purchases than non-nurtured leads.
- Organic search leads have a 14.6 percent close rate, while outbound marketing leads (traditional sales techniques) have a 1.7 percent close rate.
The Content Marketing Takeaway
As most marketers agree, forms of traditional marketing will always be effective and part of the sales process. However, the Internet has opened innovative marketing opportunities that should not be underestimated. This is especially true when it comes to jansan industry and content marketing. Quality content marketing can lead to sales even if it requires content quotas.
Robert Kravitz is president of AlturaSolutions, Which Provides Content Marketing Strategies for the Professional Cleaning Industry. He can be reached at: solutions@alturasolutions.com