The Dynamic Duo

Challenges of sales and marketing collaboration at B2B events

[.e-column-flex-row][.e-column][.e-column-icon-check-circle][.e-column-icon-check-circle][.e-column-text][.e-column-heading][.ebook-24px] Lack of alignment in goals and objectives[.ebook-24px][.e-column-heading][.ebook-body-text]Without a clear understanding of what each team is trying to achieve, it can be difficult to create a cohesive strategy and maximize the ROI of events. While marketing focuses on demand generation, brand awareness and sales enablement, sales has its focus on closing deals. Hence, finding common ground to measure can be a challenge. Another contributing factor is that both these teams are compensated differently - sales jobs are closely tied to variables, so they are likely to prioritize only the leads which have a higher chance of success, whereas for marketing, every lead is important. [.ebook-body-text][.e-column-text][.e-column][.e-column][.e-column-icon-message-circle][.e-column-icon-message-circle][.e-column-text][.e-column-heading][.ebook-24px]Lack of transparency and communication [.ebook-24px][.e-column-heading]Without clear visibility into each other’s processes, trust issues are likely to crop up between the two teams. This is further fueled by insufficient and ineffective communication about event messaging and follow-up activities that should occur after an event, leading to a disconnect between before-event and after-event communications, and eventually - missed opportunities.[.e-column-text][.e-column][.e-column-flex-row]

[.e-column-flex-row][.e-column][.e-column-icon-clipboard][.e-column-icon-clipboard][.e-column-text][.e-column-heading][.ebook-24px]Measuring the success of an event[.ebook-24px][.e-column-heading][.ebook-body-text]When you use different tools for registration, lead management, and customer relationship management, you’ll need robust data integration and reporting capabilities - this can be difficult to implement in practice. Not just that; tracking the impact of events on the entire sales funnel can be complex, as there may be multiple touchpoints and interactions involved in a B2B buying decision.[.ebook-body-text][.e-column-text][.e-column][.e-column][.e-column-icon-star][.e-column-icon-star][.e-column-text][.e-column-heading][.ebook-24px]The constantly evolving buyer journey[.ebook-24px][.e-column-heading]B2B buyers are now more informed and selective. As a result, the focus has shifted from traditional sales pitches to creating personalized and meaningful experiences that educate and engage potential customers. This often involves a mix of touchpoints, with a greater emphasis on relationship-building and content-rich experiences - unfortunately, none of this is possible without sales being clued into attendee behavior across events and having the ability to reach out to prospects in real-time.[.e-column-text][.e-column][.e-column-flex-row]

[.e-column-flex-row][.e-column][.e-column-icon-pie-chart][.e-column-icon-pie-chart][.e-column-text][.e-column-heading][.ebook-24px]Gaps due to siloed data and insights[.ebook-24px][.e-column-heading][.ebook-body-text]When your event data is not plugged into the sales CRM tool, it has to be manually managed. Or even if it is plugged in, the data you get is not actionable - as the context is not imported. So sales has no idea about a lead's journey so far.This means any scope of personalized outreach becomes bleak, leaving your sales team with nothing more than
ho-hum outreach on the lines of “Hi, I noticed you attended this event”.[.ebook-body-text][.e-column-text][.e-column][.e-column-image-binocular][.e-column-image-binocular][.e-column-flex-row]

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How event tech influences collaboration

With virtual and hybrid events proving their long-term relevance, event technology continues to take centerstage. What this means is that the scope of sales-marketing collaboration depends on how much your event technology allows for it. 

Here are the possibilities when you use a collaboration-friendly platform to power your B2B events:

Democratized insights

Event technology that provides a centralized dashboard with real-time data and insights, accessible to all internal teams, can eliminate any need to manually go through data dumps, plus also eliminate any need for sales to follow up with marketing for insights, thereby allowing for better collaboration and decision-making. 

By providing a single source of truth for event data, internal teams can make informed decisions based on a shared understanding of event performance.

[.e-stat-flex][.e-stat-img-speech][.e-stat-img-speech][.e-stat-text-block][.e-stat-number]60%[.e-stat-number][.e-stat-heading]marketers said the most important current need is getting a detailed attendee timeline of their activity across events.[.e-stat-heading][.e-stat-text]Source: The Future of B2B events in 2023[.e-stat-text] [.e-stat-text-block][.e-stat-flex]

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Interact better with the new-age B2B buyer

Today’s buyers don't like to be handheld - they want to experience your product firsthand. Hence, event marketers can skip the spray and pray approach and have segment specific events.

With the right event platform on your side, you can segment attendees based on their behavior and preferences, allowing for more targeted and personalized marketing and sales outreach.

Features such as real-time Slack alerts about registrations and attendance at B2B events can empower sales to interact with prospects in real-time

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Improved scalability

We bet you haven’t met a single soul that thoroughly enjoys the joy-giving activity of following up on tasks.

Luckily, today’s event technology can automate many of the manual processes involved in organizing and executing a B2B event, such as lead tracking and follow-up, thereby freeing up sales and marketing teams to focus on higher-value activities and of course, making it easier to scale events and manage multiple events simultaneously.

[.e-stat-flex][.e-stat-img-pipeline][.e-stat-img-pipeline][.e-stat-text-block][.e-stat-number]58%[.e-stat-number][.e-stat-heading]of B2B marketers use pipeline generation to measure event success.[.e-stat-heading][.e-stat-text]Source: The Future of B2B events in 2023[.e-stat-text] [.e-stat-text-block][.e-stat-flex]

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How do you maximize sales-marketing collaboration at B2B events

Here’s a stage-by-stage breakup for you:

[.e-event-component-pink][.e-event-heading][.ebook-30px-pink]Before the event[.ebook-30px-pink][.e-event-heading][.e-event-column-flex][.e-event-column][.ebook-body-text]The first thing you’d want to do is to align sales in the event strategy phase itself. Asking the right questions in your before-event huddle is crucial:
1-What metrics will determine the success of this event?
2-What is your target number of high-intent leads that you hope to convert into closed sales during or after the event?
3-What methods will you use to gauge your success in advancing deals?
4-What kind of return on investment is being looked at?[.ebook-body-text][.e-event-column][.e-before-event-visual][.e-before-event-visual][.e-event-column-flex][.e-resources-cta][.ebook-24px]Step by step before-event checklist[.ebook-24px][.text-button]Check out now[.text-button-icon][.text-button-icon][.text-button][.e-resources-cta][.e-event-component-pink]

[.e-event-component-blue][.e-event-heading][.ebook-30px-blue]During the event[.ebook-30px-blue][.e-event-heading][.e-event-column-flex][.e-event-column][.ebook-body-text]Once the event unfolds, the focus should be on gaining a detailed understanding of the behavior of your attendees during the event. This includes analyzing the specific questions they ask during sessions and their reactions to in-session polls.

With proper context to each attendee’s journey, sales can tailor relationship building efforts in a relevant manner. 

For example, you can provide top priority contacts with links to personal breakout rooms where you can respond to their questions and discuss their preferred topics.Take me to the complete during-event checklist[.ebook-body-text][.e-event-column][.e-during-event-visual][.e-during-event-visual][.e-event-column-flex][.e-resources-cta][.ebook-24px]Complete during-event checklist[.ebook-24px][.text-button]Check out now[.text-button-icon][.text-button-icon][.text-button][.e-resources-cta][.e-event-component-blue]

[.e-event-component-green][.e-event-heading][.ebook-30px-green]After the event[.ebook-30px-green][.e-event-heading][.e-event-column-flex][.e-event-column][.ebook-body-text]The phrase ‘strike while the iron’s hot’ has never been more relevant to events! It’s crucial to follow-up with your prospects while the impact of the event is still in their minds; anything after this sweet spot is a shot in the dark!
When sales and marketing have a shared understanding of event performance, both teams can work together to prioritize leads and quickly follow up on the most promising opportunities.

Empowering sales with quick follow-up event content is key here, so plan your giveaways ahead of time, such as:[.ebook-body-text][.e-event-column][.e-after-event-visual][.e-after-event-visual][.e-event-column-flex][.e-resources-cta][.ebook-24px]Access the complete after-event checklist[.ebook-24px][.text-button]Check out now[.text-button-icon][.text-button-icon][.text-button][.e-resources-cta][.e-event-component-green]

By aligning their efforts, sales and marketing teams can not only bring better returns with every B2B event but also ensure that the messaging and positioning of your company is consistent, which is necessary to build trust and credibility with potential customers.