Introduction
If there is any friction between the Marketing and Sales teams at your organization, you’re not alone. There’s a huge potential for conflict when it comes to accountability and responsibility for new business development. Because of this, the two departments naturally want to point fingers at each other when things don’t work out. But research shows that by bringing sales and marketing together, companies can dramatically increase their chances for success. The key is understanding how the two teams can work together more effectively as one unit than separately. In this post, we’ll discuss five ways you can align your sales and marketing teams:
Why your Marketing and Sales teams are not on the same page
When a customer is interested in a product and decides to purchase it, the role of the marketing and sales teams is equally important. The customers can be attracted by marketing campaigns or you may get them through your existing clients. The customer is ready to buy your product but what happens next? Is there any difference between whether the customer bought from you because of an advertisement on TV or they got to know about your products through word-of-mouth?
There is more than one way for someone to find out about your product – advertisements, conferences, trade shows etc., but it ultimately boils down to two things: who sells better and who markets better. Marketing makes sure that their target audience knows about the benefits of using whatever they do (or want) while selling ensures that those benefits are delivered by providing value for money with exceptional services or support when necessary.
For instance: A company’s revenue might have increased by 15% since last year but if its growth rate has slowed down over time then there must be something wrong somewhere within the organization which needs fixing urgently before more damage occurs further down the line when employees start feeling demotivated due to low performance levels arising out poor leadership skills exhibited by management levels above theirs own egos which are stopping them from taking decisions based on facts rather than gut feelings alone when making decisions which could potentially impact upon other departments negatively if not corrected soon enough; this leads into another topic altogether so let’s just stick with our current scenario here instead 🙂
What you can do to create a positive culture and facilitate team collaboration
- Share the same vision.
- Establish a common language.
- Create a shared goal.
- Focus on the customer; be customer-centric.
- Establish a culture of collaboration in which all team members are working together to achieve one goal and are open to each other’s input and ideas, regardless of job title or departmental affiliation.
This is an important step because it ensures that everyone is focused on the same target audience, who can be found at any point in the funnel (acquisition, engagement, conversion). A focus on this group will ensure that your SMART goals align with their needs as well as those of your company so that when you reach out to new customers you’re doing so in ways they find useful or appealing instead of wasting time trying something nobody wants or needs right now!
How to integrate your sales and marketing teams
After reading the previous section, you might be thinking to yourself “Great! So how do I integrate my sales and marketing teams?” The first thing to keep in mind is that a cohesive plan is not created overnight. It takes time and effort to build a strong relationship between your sales team and the marketing team.
In order to increase sales, marketing must work with sales on the following items:
- Create a cohesive plan that includes both short-term goals (like increasing conversion rates) and long-term goals (like increasing revenue).
- Work together by identifying what each department needs from the other. This can include anything from content strategy planning meetings to weekly email blasts with new product information.
- Build relationships between employees within each department so they feel comfortable communicating their ideas across departments without fear of being ridiculed or ignored by other employees of their own company who may not understand why certain decisions were made.
How to get your sales team to go beyond the “asks” to see results
The sales team plays an important role in converting a lead into a customer. But they can do more than just make the ask.
Sales representatives should share their expertise and experience with others in your company, including marketing teams. Sharing their knowledge will help them become more valuable to their organisation while helping other departments grow as well.
To encourage this behaviour, it’s important that you let your salespeople know why sharing information is important (and how it benefits them). You should also be clear about what you need from each person on your team as well as what kind of information they should be sharing with others outside of their department or function.
The first step towards building a collaborative relationship between your marketing and sales functions is learning how they can work together, better.
To get started, you need to know what your sales team needs from your marketing function, and vice versa. Generally speaking, the two departments have different areas of responsibility and priorities—and this can cause conflicts between them if they don’t work together effectively.
While you may be tempted to blame this on miscommunication or lack of understanding between members of each department, the truth is that there are many reasons why these two groups don’t always see eye-to-eye on everything—and it’s not always due to poor communication or lack of respect for company goals! There are some valid reasons why a particular sales campaign might not appear as successful as expected:
- The product isn’t right yet;
- The message wasn’t clear enough (or was too complicated);
- The timing wasn’t right;
- There are too many other factors at play (for example competition).
Conclusion
Our top tips for building a collaborative culture:
- Learn each other’s processes and goals.
- Build a collaborative relationship between your marketing and sales teams by creating a cross-functional team of marketers and sales reps who will work together on campaigns, projects, or activities.
- Align your teams around common goals like retention rate or lifetime value of customers instead of just focusing on the “asks” from one department over another (e.g., marketing asks for more content from sales).
- Define KPIs that span across functions like “leads to meetings set up” or “qualified leads generated.” This can help you create accountability among all members involved in driving results!
- Focus on implementing marketing best practices as well as having fun while they are being implemented so everyone feels included in their own way…which ultimately leads to better collaboration around shared goals such as growth opportunities, profitability targets, and new customer acquisition rates etcetera!
