Let me tell a story about Anna and James.
Why am I telling you a story on a B2B marketing automation blog, you ask? Because it’s a heck of a lot more interesting than a list of product features and benefits, chock-full of inspiring marketing buzzwords. And because I think it’s the best way for you to envision how using sales and marketing tools like Salesforce Engage and Pardot in tandem will impact your day-to-day routine — as well as your bottom line.
The following is an excerpt from an e-book written for this very purpose. The e-book walks through a full week in the life of our hypothetical sales and marketing couple, Anna and James, as they go from power struggle to power couple with the help of technology and an infallible strategy for success — and I’m here to share a typical morning with you.
Let’s dive in.
Meet Anna and James: pre-power couple.
Two ordinary people: Anna is a mid-market sales rep who thinks in quotas, while James is a marketer with high aspirations to impact his business. And they rarely see eye-to-eye.
Anna is frustrated. Every time she picks up the phone, it’s another dead-end lead, either totally unqualified as a prospect or in no way ready to talk to sales — a complete waste of her time. How is she supposed to hit her quota when James and his team keep passing over duds? What were they doing all day anyway, writing Facebook posts?
On the other side of the office, James also has his frustrations. Why is sales always pushing for new and better leads when the ones he’s passing over aren’t even being worked? And what about all of the content he’s producing — why aren’t reps using it to educate prospects on the value of the product? When was anyone going to realize the potential value of his marketing?
Any of this sounding familiar?
Many businesses are plagued by the issues described above, and their numbers suffer from this gap in communication and misalignment of goals. And here’s the real kicker: Anna and James both have the same goal. They both want to close more deals, faster. They just need tools that will allow them to work together, share insights, play to each team’s respective strengths, and — ultimately — win together. And Anna and James found that with Pardot and Salesforce Engage.
So here our story begins. Let’s take a look at one scenario where Anna and James used their respective tools to create efficient communication around an upcoming event.
The scene: Monday morning.
9:00 AM
James is excited. He’s headed to this week’s Monday morning sales meeting and he has an announcement that he thinks will interest the reps: in three weeks’ time, the company will have a booth at a popular trade show in Boston. His team has planned for an exciting presence, with a great booth placement, fun giveaways, and lots of reps on hand to demo their latest product releases — all in all, a great opportunity to make a good impression on a potential customer.
As James describes the upcoming event, Anna’s interest is piqued. She has a number of prospects in the Boston area, several of whom she’s been struggling to coordinate meeting times with. She quickly asks James if he can draft up an email with all of the relevant event information.
Back at his desk, James goes to work. He opens up Pardot and builds a simple but attractive text-based email with their booth number, a brief pitch on why to stop by, and some of their most effective marketing messaging. He includes some variable tags to make sure each message is personalized, then checks a box in the template settings to make it available for 1:1 use.
Satisfied that this message will drive engagement and still look natural coming from his reps, James sends a quick email to the sales team to let them know that the template is now ready for sending.
11:45 AM
Anna is wrapping up her morning and getting ready to head to lunch when she notices James’ email about the template. In Salesforce, she quickly pulls up a list of her Boston prospects, selects all, and clicks the button “Send Engage Campaign.”
As a list of templates pops up on the left of her screen, she selects a new template called “Upcoming Boston Trade Show,” scans a quick preview of how the personalized email will appear to one of her prospects (wow, James put together a great email!), and hits send.
12:15 PM
Over lunch, Anna feels her phone buzz; a prospect has replied to the Boston trade show email!
Hi Anna, Thanks for reaching out, I actually already had plans to attend the trade show so this works out great! I will make sure to drop by the booth for some information and will connect with you after the show. Thanks!
Anna forwards the email to James:
Thanks for the help! These event emails are really effective.
She feels satisfied with a productive morning.
Want to find out what happens next? Stay tuned to our blog or grab your free copy of the e-book, and be sure to check out more of the features and capabilities of Salesforce Engage on our website.
