There’s always some trouble explaining why an inbound consultant can be an integral part of your business, but I feel like one of our clients says it best:
“When you are a small business owner with a small team so focused on the day to day you literally don’t have time to do [content development]. Not only that but when you have no clue where to begin, it’s so nice to have a team of experts there to help drive the strategy.” - Derek Yurgaitis, President of Meltblown Technologies
Trying to start working on sales enablement without someone who really knows what they’re doing isn’t the best strategy. Things can happen during planning that change where your team’s focus is, and at that moment you lose sight of long term goals in favor of day to day business. That isn’t to say that the day to day isn’t important, because it is; but having someone who can see the big picture can be invaluable.
Helping With Your Strategy
You never want to forget your ultimate target, which is an unfortunate possibility if you don’t have the right kind of direction. If you lose the target, that means that content starts getting off base. If you’re trying to create a content strategy around your new line of cars, you don’t want one of your creators writing a great blog about boats. That is why an inbound consultant can be a lifesaver, they will keep you on task.
They won’t just keep you on task, they will also make sure that your strategy is what is best for your company. With their help you will know what your ten next steps are going to be, and then when you complete the last of those they can give you ten more.
You may think that you can tackle creating an inbound strategy all by yourself, but what happens when you get distracted and start thinking about the here and now? You could alter the process you have your team go through for creating content, or you could start changing the strategy to fit with your ideas of what the company needs in the now rather than in the long term. There is nothing worse than an inbound campaign failing because you couldn’t keep on target.
With the help of an expert inbound specialist to keep your company aimed at the end goal, your sales enablement efforts will be far more coordinated than they would be otherwise. With the right consultant, the content that gets created to help your sales team will actually go on to help them. Blogs, email templates, presentations, whitepapers, and more will all be on point and targeting the right buyer persona so that the process of converting a prospect into a lead then on into customer is much smoother.
On the other end of the spectrum, if you don’t have the right content being created, what will your team have to work with? To use the earlier metaphor, how will they sell a car if everything they have is about how great the newest boat is? Without a specialist who can keep everything integrated even slight deviations from the target can throw their efforts off. They need help, no matter how good they are, and you need to be able to make sure they get that help.
Keeping You Accountable
If you’ve been given a good strategy, and you think you’re going to follow through, wouldn’t you like to have someone there to make sure you actually do it? You plan on kicking off your sales enablement campaign, create ten new pages for your website, and write four blogs, but none of it gets done because you got distracted by making sure your clients are happy and their needs are checked before your own. This is a great thing, an important thing, but it won’t help you in the long run. Your current customers may be happy, but you’ve compromised your ability to gain new ones. That’s where the inbound consultant comes in, their expertise at integrating with your team can make sure you actually follow through with your strategy.
Your consultant will help you set the strategy, and then they will work with you to make sure that you stay on track. They will be right there with you, in person or by an easy mode of communication like phone or email, to make sure that nothing falls apart. Their job is to make sure that their strategy will help your company grow, your work bear fruit, and everything in your business integrate seamlessly.
If there isn’t anyone there who keeps track of your goals, how are you going to be able to make sure everyone on your team is making exactly what they were supposed to? Again, if you plan on selling cars you don’t want your team making a whitepaper on boat prices, a blog about boating laws, or a presentation about the newest line of speedboat. You want them to stay on task but if you’ve got a mountain of work on your own, you need someone to make sure they don’t take any steps in the wrong direction. That is what an inbound consultant does, they hold your team accountable.
Helping You Understand
An inbound consultant is there to make sure you understand exactly why you are doing what you are doing. There are plenty of books, videos, or other forms of informative medium out there about how to become a successful manager, marketer, and beyond, but how easy is it to understand everything you’re investing your time into reading?
There are a lot of books out there that give great advice or act as guides on the selling process. You don’t have time to read every new book that comes out, so you need someone who can help with the cliff notes, making sure that you get the high points. You need to be able to handle the changing world of business, and without some help that can be a very difficult. An expert consultant will help you master the tools of your trade. They will work with you, guide you, and help you figure out what is best for your company.
Posted by Kevin Glancy
Kevin Glancy is an east coast transplant who has had a taste of the inbound Kool-Aid and is pumped to share how it can help your business grow. He loves video games, a good laugh, and enlightening conversations.