How To Ensure Sales And Marketing Work Together More Effectively
Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Erica Bell, Marketing Management writer for business resource site Business.com.
Conflicts – all offices have them and all employees will encounter at least one during their working days. Economics and cultural differences between sales and marketing departments can cause conflicts in the workplace that ultimately hinder your profits and the performance of your business. Don’t let your business become a victim to the clash of the department titans. Get your sales and marketing teams working together effectively for greater success and a boost in your bottom line.
Better Communication
To get started, upper management and managers within both departments need to focus on opening the communication lines between marketing and sales teams. Better communication about the wants, and needs, across multiple departments can make a world of difference. Here are two simple solutions you can get started with.
- In-Office Social Networks: Networks such as Yammer allow staff to get social no matter their department and can lead to a better understanding and will allow each department to gain new insight into the other.
- Centralized Customer Information: Your marketing and sales teams should have access to up-to-date prospect information. A consolidated CRM system can improve the efficiency of both departments.
- Sales-Marketing Meetings: Sales representatives are an extension of marketing and both departments are aimed at moving numbers in the right direction. Marketing can discover what materials sales would find valuable in closing a sale
A More Refined Funnel
It’s simple. Marketers and sales representatives want the same thing but go about it in different ways. By focusing on your sales funnel, marketers and sales teams can be more effective. Marketers use data from analytics programs to track clicks and what content is appealing to which users. Sales reps use direct feedback from customers and prospects. Align the goals of both departments to refine your sales funnel and both departments will see greater success in their individual efforts.
- Define what makes a prospect sales- ready from the marketer perspective and the sales perspective. As these two departments work more closely together, your sales funnel will change and the marketing strategies will change right along with it for a more accurate funnel overall.
- The average sales cycle is 22% longer than it was 5 years ago. Since this is the case, marketers and sales must be able to intertwine their efforts to stay connected and relevant as a buyer moves down the funnel.
An Integrated Approach
Companies that make the most of sales and marketing do so by making sure these two departments work well together. Fortune 500 companies report that having a strong sales enablement program are witnessing at 15.3% growth. In order for your business to have an integrated approach,
- Tie the goals of sales and marketing together. While many sales positions may have a tie to profits or commission, marketing department goals are often data oriented. By tying marketing goals to the goals of the sales team, these two will begin to work together.
- Keep consistent messaging. Your marketing messages must be able sell and your sales pitches must be consistent with your marketing messaging. When the average salesperson spends 7 hours per week looking for relevant information to prepare for sales calls, marketers must communicate and let these team members know where the information can be easily and quickly found.
Get your sales and marketing teams working together more effectively by enabling them to communicate easily with one another and tying their responsibilities to the other department. Teams will be more successful than individuals, on both large and small scales. By tying together their goals and creating a culture that encourages consistent and constant communication, your sales and marketing teams will begin working together for greater success.
About the Author: Erica Bell is a marketing management writer for business resource site Business.com. She is a copywriter that covers a range of topics including social media marketing, sales training and small business software. Find Business.com on Facebook!