“When marketing and sales work in tandem, it’s like poetry in motion”
By Zoe Baptie, Associate Director, Head of Tech Practice
One of the things that, as PRs, we get asked a lot by clients and prospective clients is, ‘how do I know if PR is working for me’? It’s not always a straightforward answer; as an awareness piece, it’s difficult to track.
An example I always give is from one of Bluestripe Group’s first-ever clients. They used to arm their sales team with the PR coverage so they could say to prospects, ‘you would have seen our client X, speaking to The Drum/Digiday/AdExchanger (delete as appropriate) about the work we have done together’. On top of this, when onboarding a new client, they would ask how they heard about the company, and one of the options was via trade media coverage.
It got me thinking about how we engage with the commercial teams for the companies we work with. There was the obvious: raising the profile of the Chief Commercial Officer, giving them maximum exposure so when he walked into a room people knew who he was and who he worked for. This made it easier for him to engage in conversations. But then I realised, a lot of my points of contact with some clients were with someone from the commercial side of the business. They were fully aligned with both PR and Marketing, and it really helped ensure everyone internally was singing from the same song sheet.
Light bulb moment
So why don’t we get a group of commercial leads in a room to talk about how PR can provide sales teams with the success stories they need to beat the competition? At a time when buyers are becoming more sceptical of polished messaging and AI-generated content, customer credibility is becoming one of the most valuable assets a company can own. And PR acts as that ultimate proof point that can drive customer growth, earn industry recognition, and build credibility.
So that’s what we did. Earlier this week, we brought together a group of senior sales representatives from all corners of the industry over breakfast – and it was brilliant. The conversation really flowed. One of my favourite soundbites was from Dominic Woolfe, UK Country Lead at TapTapDigital. Giving a personal example of when he had seen marketing and sales work together well, Dom spoke of his time at Azerion and working with Paul Lowery, then Head of Marketing, Sales and Insights. Paul had both the trust of the sales and marketing teams. He knew their challenges and goals, and was able to unite the two teams internally. As such, both sales and marketing were working in tandem, so it was “like poetry in motion.”
This really struck a chord with me for many reasons. I worked on the PR for Azerion for 3 years from 2021-2023. I was constantly telling them they were my favourite client at the time (I know we aren’t supposed to have favourites, but it was true!). This wasn’t just PR flattery. Yes, it was exciting because, at that time, the company was in acquisition mode and buying up all its competitors. The thrill of chasing tier one coverage at the drop of a hat, with little to no notice that the news was about to break, was stressful, but so rewarding (that’s why we’re in PR, right?).
What Dom said brought it all into focus. I enjoyed working with the team so much because they didn’t treat us like an external partner; we were part of the team. Paul brought us in as an extension of the marketing team. We were completely immersed in the company. He introduced us to everyone. We spent time one-on-one with the different stakeholders, and he kept us in the loop on everything going on (apart from who they were about to buy for legal reasons, obviously). And he understood PR, its role, the benefits, and how they could make it stretch further and work for them internally in sync with their marketing and sales strategy. Plus he trusted us to do the best job we could.
Mutual trust
It’s this mutual trust that works as an enabler for teams and individuals to get the job done. As Mark Taylor, Director, Commercial Partnerships at Samba TV said during the Selling the Sellers breakfast, “marketing teams need to trust sellers to adapt the pitch”. While messaging and company style are important and need to be aligned, there needs to be some flexibility in the process. As Phil Raby, CRO at mediarithmics states, the approach needs to be tailored to the person you are speaking with and think, “what are the ‘so fucking what’s on the slide?” Sales teams can’t be chained to one deck. So long as the end result is the same, does it really matter how you got there?
To steal a quote from Phil Acton, UK Country Manager at Adform, “[sellers] are the touts outside the Harry Styles concert. If you are chained to one place, you’ll miss those serendipity moments”. They are the ones having those human connections and going deep into conversations on the ground every day. They know the challenges and what people want.
With a suggestion by Austin Scott, CCO of Bedrock Platform, that the table should get together to do some “deck roasting”, our session of “PR traitors” came to a close.