Sales tips: What marketers wish salespeople knew

When it comes to salespeople selling to marketing folks, I have sympathy for both sides of this equation, having worked in both capacities at different points in my career. Still, as someone wearing the marketing hat in my current job, I get frustrated by some common issues that crop up when salespeople contact me, and so I want to offer some sales tips.

So, salespeople, listen up:

You should realize my role when you initially reach out to me. It’s pretty easy to find this out via LinkedIn. If you get in touch with me about a tool that affects clinical practice or operations, I might pass it on to the appropriate person, or just as likely I won’t, because I don’t want to bother that person with something I can’t personally vouch for.

You should realize that I don’t have time to read a treatise on email. Keep it short and emphasize the problem your solution can solve for me.

This marketing automation software does what?

You should realize that a lot of marketing tools sound alike in terms of what they do, particularly as it relates to digital. More often than not, I read an unsolicited email and think to myself, “How is this different from the automation tools I already have?” You may not know exactly what tools I do have, but you should be able to clearly articulate what problem your tool solves.

You need to realize that I’m inundated, and I probably won’t get back to you quickly. I’m not trying to be rude, but I’m really short on time.

You shouldn’t attempt to contact me on a Friday afternoon and expect to get a response. This might just be me, but I get the feeling that this is a task that you’ve put off all week, and now you’re going to pad your call statistics by lobbing a “Hail Mary” in my direction. I’m trying to wrap up the week and get the heck out to start my weekend, I’m not going to spend time looking at some tool I didn’t ask for.

LinkedIn etiquette

Here’s a real pet peeve: Don’t try to become part of my LinkedIn network as a pretense to trying to sell me something. I used to accept those invitations to connect, only to be burned, so now I reserve my network for those whom I actually know.

If I give you a firm “no” regarding my interest in your product, then please go away gracefully and stop sending me emails. Maybe, maybe, put it in your tickler file and contact me in a year to see if my situation has changed, but emailing me in a month’s time is only going to annoy me.

Hopefully, these sales tips will prove useful to you salespeople out there. Marketers, what aspects of dealing with salespeople leave you frustrated? Let me know in the comments.