How’s your workflow organized? Does your sales team work together with SEO experts to generate leads? Or do they work separately? Have you ever thought it would be nice to combine their efforts so they could not just attract more leads, but these leads would also be better?

If this question has been nudging you for some time, keep reading. In this article, we will explore how these two forces can be combined to drive better results for your business and increase your revenue. Ready to begin? If so, let’s dive in!

The Role of SEO in Lead Generation

It goes without saying that the role of search engine optimization in attracting leads is crucial. Is there even anyone who wouldn’t want to come up high in SERPs organically instead of splurging the marketing budget into PPC? 

For businesses like a software development company, precision engineering firm, or boutique marketing agency, lead acquisition often presents unique challenges. Niche-focused enterprises in areas such as healthcare technology, financial services, or green energy solutions also face similar hurdles when trying to attract high-quality leads.

When Google treats your site as a reputable source, not only does it rank it high in search results, but it also ensures that your target audience can easily find it, helping you bring the right traffic. B2B buyers who land on your site are genuinely interested in your content or service, meaning they are more likely to take the desired action.

The secret behind an effective SEO strategy is to understand search intent. What is it that people are looking for? What do they need? What are their pain points? By addressing these questions, your SEO efforts can do miracles, allowing you to come in front of potential leads just when they’re surfing the web in search of solutions. 

Do we even need to tell you that well-optimized websites have priority when it comes to their rankings? You can invest thousands of dollars in your PPC campaigns, but they are nowhere near as effective as organic SEO efforts in the long run. This is why planning your SEO is vital to ensuring your business attracts quality leads on a continuous basis. 

The Role of Sales in Lead Generation

So, what is the role of the sales team in all of this? A short answer is: highly important. The long answer is, if not for B2B marketers, nurturing leads who have come to your site into paying customers would be a steep hill. It is marketers who act as frontline soldiers interacting with leads to understand what they want and how they can help them achieve their goals. 

It’s also them who hold responsibility for all the interaction with customers, which means they know exactly what bothers them and what products or services they are looking for – the knowledge that helps turn an average business offer into a great offer no one can resist. 

Unlike SEO, which often deals with a broader audience, sales teams work one-on-one with customers. If they do their job well, your leads won’t just stay leads; they will turn into paying customers interested in coming back to your site for more. 

Why Combining the Two Is Important

While it seems that everyone understands the importance of each role, the reality is, many businesses still treat SEO and sales as separate entities. Each division has its own metrics and goals and works in silos rather than as a whole unit. 

This, however, is a bottleneck. Instead of working together to drive more conversions, they focus only on what they need to do, which leads to many missed opportunities. You might attract traffic, but if those people are not interested in your offer, there’s a very slim chance they might convert. 

Imagine a different scenario. You have a great SEO team that successfully positions your site among the top three websites in search results. Your traffic flows, and your sales team stands in front of it. Not only do they understand what kinds of leads come to your site, but they can tell you which strategy turns out to be the most effective in attracting prospects.

Karina Egle, an SEO specialist from Whop, explains that “effective collaboration between SEO and sales teams leads to higher-quality traffic and better conversion opportunities. By sharing insights and aligning strategies, businesses can target prospects who are ready to take action.”

For example, if sales notices that leads coming from specific blog posts or landing pages are particularly strong, SEO experts can focus their efforts on optimizing those pages and replicating the success. And vice versa. If there are too many leads that come to your site who aren’t actually interested, they can help you take preventive measures and sift them.

The combined efforts of SEO and sales can do miracles for your business. By working in synergy and sharing insights, they can boost traffic that has real potential to turn into customers. 

Benefits of SEO-Sales Collaboration

Let’s look more closely at the benefits of collaboration between SEO and sales teams. 

Higher Lead Quality

SEO can target high-intent keywords and optimize content to attract B2B leads who are more likely to convert. Sales teams, in turn, can use SEO data to fine-tune their strategies and focus on leads who are genuinely interested in the product or service rather than chasing random people.

Increased Conversion Rates

The feedback from sales is invaluable when it comes to optimizing SEO efforts. Armed with the knowledge about the leads who are most likely to convert, SEO specialists can improve the content, ensuring it addresses the specific needs of the targeted audience. Ultimately, this can help drive conversions.

Better Content Creation

When SEO and sales teams work in duos, this makes it easier to create highly targeted content, the type that appeals to prospects and naturally attracts leads. Rather than just inhabiting your site with multiple pages trying to cover more keywords, you can create content that is both optimized for search engines and relevant to customer needs. 

Improved Customer Insights

Collaboration between SEO and sales gives you access to a wider pool of data. SEO teams use sales data to better understand which leads bring the most value for the business, while sales can use SEO insights to track customer preferences and search trends. As a result, both teams can fine-tune their strategies for more favorable outcomes. 

Tools and Technologies to Support Collaboration

If you’re thinking about incorporating a new model into your workflow, it might be useful to take advantage of a few tools and technologies that can help streamline the process. Here are the tools you’ll need:

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems: First things first, you will need a good CRM. Salesforce and HubSpot are two examples of good CRMs that can help you track leads from the moment they enter your funnel to when they convert. This data can help both teams understand how leads interact with your business. 
• Analytics Platforms: You also need access to analytics tools like Google Analytics, Ahrefs, and SEMrush. Primarily designed for SEO and link building experts, these platforms can provide your sales teams with invaluable data they can use to refine their outreach strategies.
• Content Management Systems (CMS): Finally, you can’t do without a good CMS. WordPress and HubSpot’s CMSs come optimized for both SEO and lead conversions out-of-the-box, making them the best choice for those looking to streamline SEO-sales collaboration. 

For further enhancing SEO efforts, tools like Feedthebot can be incorporated to evaluate and refine site performance, helping to align strategies across teams effectively.

Common Challenges and How to Overcome Them

While combining the efforts of SEO and sales teams is a great step forward, it’s not without challenges. Let’s look at some of them to better understand what they are and how they can be overcome.

Resistance to Change

This one is perhaps the biggest challenge. All teams find it hard to accept new rules if they’ve been doing something different for some time. They’ve got their own routine, which they’re used to, and asking them to change everything will require a significant shift in their mindset. Of course, it is doable, but it will likely take you a while before they get used to the change. 

Siloed Teams

Aside from resistance from your workmates, it can be rather challenging to organize the working process so that SEO and B2B marketers who have worked in isolation before would work alongside each other. However, this step is highly important as they need to be able to communicate with each other in order for this collaboration to work.

Different KPIs and Goals

Another challenge is to align the metrics and goals that your teams pursue. Of course, SEO experts should be focused on traffic and rankings and sales teams should pursue closing deals. That said, if you can make sure both teams focus on lead quality rather than quantity, this can help bridge the gap. 

Miscommunication

It can be difficult to ensure seamless communication between teams, especially if there were certain barriers between them before. To prevent miscommunication and boost productivity on the team, it can be helpful to use tools like shared dashboards. Aside from that, it’s always good to organize meetings with the team to ensure everyone stays on the same page.  

Steps for Successful Collaboration Between SEO and Sales Teams

Now that we’ve covered the advantages of combining these two forces, as well as the challenges that may come up along the way, it’s time to look into the practical side of all this, and answer the main question – “how to foster collaboration between these teams?” 

1. Provide Your Team with a Convenient Communication Channel

One of the first things to do is to eliminate any barriers that could impede communication of your team. Many companies choose to hold weekly or bi-weekly meetings, which helps align the efforts of two teams. You can do it more often than that, depending on your business needs. 

The whole point of these meetings is to ensure that your team members understand what they are expected to do, have a clear picture of the direction in which they’re moving, and know how to measure their success. What’s more, these meetings help foster open communication. The more your teams communicate, the smoother their collaboration will be. 

Make sure your team has access to communication tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams. These platforms allow for real-time messaging, file sharing, and task tracking, making it easier for them to stay in sync. For example, SEO experts can quickly share the latest keywords, and the sales can give feedback on lead quality. 

2. Define Clear Roles and Responsibilities

One common roadblock to effective collaboration is not understanding who’s responsible for what. To avoid this, make sure that the roles are assigned from the ground up. SEO specialists should work on attracting quality traffic through targeted content and keyword optimization. Marketers, in turn, should be able to convert these leads into customers. 

By laying out the expectations of each of your team members and clearly outlining where their roles overlap, you can avoid misunderstandings and ensure that both teams are working together to achieve common goals. 

3. Share Data and Insights Frequently

The key to successful collaboration between SEO and B2B marketers is the data they can learn from. Therefore, it’s crucial that they have the means to reach this data whether you’re going to share it during in-person meetings or through analytics platforms.  

A good idea is to set up a shared dashboard or performance reports through CRM. Using these tools, both teams can track key metrics including lead quality, conversion rates, and customer behavior – the information they need to refine strategies and drive sales. 

4. Use Customer Feedback to Inform SEO Strategy

What’s the key advantage of sales teams? It’s the fact that they interact with customers directly. This means they can not just predict the most likely behavior when it comes to making a purchase. In most cases, they know for sure which products will likely become faves and which will not appeal to potential prospects. 

This knowledge can be instrumental in refining an SEO strategy for attracting quality leads. For example, if a salesperson or appointment setter notices that people are frequently asking about a particular feature of the product or service, the SEO team can create content describing this feature in detail, this way attracting the right traffic. 

5. Celebrate Wins and Learn From Failures Together

Last but not least, it’s vital to create a working environment that encourages teams to align their efforts and achieve common goals. What’s the best way to do this? Start by creating a friendly culture where everyone can talk openly with each other and not be afraid to express their thoughts. 

Of course, no road is always even and smooth, and you should be ready that your team might make mistakes from time to time. However, this shouldn’t be a blocker. Quite the opposite. By learning from failures together, you can speed up professional growth, discover more effective solutions, and improve future performance. 

Conclusion

To wrap everything up, uniting the forces of your SEO and sales team is no longer an option. It’s a smart strategy that can help you save money, boost conversions, and attract the right leads from the start. By collaborating, sharing data, and continuously improving together, both teams can better understand your audience and create content that attracts leads that convert. 

More importantly, when two teams work hand-in-hand, you’re not just improving lead generation. First and foremost, you’re laying a solid foundation for your business’ success and growth. 

Author bio:


Roy Emmerson is the co-founder of TechTimes.com, a B2B SaaS platform that helps businesses stay up-to-date on the latest technology trends. With over a decade of experience in the tech industry, Roy is a thought leader in the field and is passionate about helping companies embrace new technologies to improve their operations and drive growth.