More and more companies are beginning to see the value of educating other departments about SEO. In many cases, everyone in your company can help improve your SEO initiatives in one way or another; the sales team being one of the most prominent. At first glance it may not seem like a sales team could have much to do with online optimization because they work with clients so often, but that is ironically how a sales team can really help.
Working with your customer base can offer huge insights into audience behavior, which can then help a SEO team better identify what needs to be done to get consumers to the sales team. In other words, it works in reverse. According to a Search Engine Journal article, “Think of it this way: Your sales team can see the future in the sense that it was your initial optimization that led those calls (usually) to the sales team.”
Top Ways Your Sales Team Can Work with Your SEO Department for Success
The hardest part in getting these two departments to work together is actually education. You can’t simply say “tell us about our audience.” You have to be able to offer real, actionable tips and evidence as to how exactly a sales team can help improve SEO. A few of the different reasons/ tips you can use to approach the idea include:
Find trends amongst your customers and clients.
This is the biggest way that sales can help an SEO team. Because sales employees talk with customers and clients all day, they know what the people want. They get to hear both positive and negative feedback about the company as well as the product/service, and they get to hear all of the questions that customers have. If a sales team starts to see a trend, and SEO team should know about these trends so they know what is being said amongst their audience. This will help an SEO team better customize content and answer the questions that people have so that ultimately your company gets the client.
Social media is also a place where you really want to connect with people, so knowing this information can help you create more relevant content there as well. Hopefully in the end, the questions and concerns will start to lessen for the sales team if the SEO team can help avoid those questions in the first place by creating a detailed blog post, for example.
Use connections the sales team has made.
A sales team member generally has a lot of connections in the industry and with your customers, and because they oftentimes get the phone interaction (as opposed to online), there is a certain level of trust. The sales team could easily use these connections to find contributed content opportunities, social sharing opportunities, and more. The problem is that the sales team doesn’t know that these opportunities are something to look for, which is where this connection comes into play.
What tactics does your sales team use on the phone?
If your sales team has figured out how to deal with your audience, the SEO team should know about it. Chances are any tactics a sales team uses can also be used when it comes to SEO. If there are certain examples or free items that work well, an SEO team may be able to work with that to lure people into a website.
The Takeaway and Making the Relationship Happen
Keep in mind that before you run off telling your sales team all the ways they can help an SEO department, you have to actually make sure they understand SEO and see the value in working together. You have to make sure you educate first so that there is a smooth transition into working together. I even recommend having the two departments sit down for a meeting once every few weeks to discussed trends they see. You can also drive sales with SEO, which you can learn more about here, so it is a two way street. The more you can stress this the better.
Do you have any thoughts on how your sales team can help your company improve its SEO? Let us know in the comment section below.