Marketing is an essential component of any business.
The long-term strategy creates awareness and demand for your product or service instead of solely focusing on generating revenue in short bursts with sales as its sole function. The importance of marketing is critical. Without an effective campaign to create awareness and drive demand for your product or service, you will not succeed in sales!
Consider this:
- 43.1% of businesses describe their sales and marketing as either “misaligned” or “rarely aligned,” according to a survey conducted by Boardworks and LeadRSST.
- At only 46 percent of firms, Sales and Marketing were described as being “highly aligned.”
- One-third (33%) of marketers aren’t sure which assets their Sales workers are most likely to employ.
- According to a recent survey, only one in three salespeople believes they know what Sales want from them. Three out of five marketers think they comprehend what Sales demands, but only one-third of salespeople agree.
- In a recent Hubspot poll, only 26% of respondents have a formal service level agreement (SLA) between sales and marketing.
The opportunities for further development are there. However, that is a significant loss.
According to research, the following were the six most significant barriers to alignment:
- 43% of organizations lack accurate/shared data on target accounts and prospects.
- Communication (43%)
- Different metrics are used (41%)
- Almost half of the business problems mentioned in the stories stem from broken or faulty procedures (47%).
- On both sides, there is a lack of responsibility (25%)
- Most executives (61%) say they were often challenged by change initiatives others proposed rather than executed in their organization. They also find themselves short-staffed and overworked.
- Overcoming obstacles (21%)
An effective sales strategy cannot exist without marketing and vice versa. To be successful, both need to support each other.
Marketing provides sales with the leads they need to close deals, and sales help bring in revenue that can be reinvested into marketing initiatives. Sales and marketing can help a business reach new heights by working together.
“There is no question that, when Sales and Marketing work well together, companies see substantial improvement on important performance metrics: Sales cycles are shorter, market-entry costs go down, and the cost of sales is lower.” July-August 2006 Harvard Business Review
If you’re not sure how sales and marketing can work together in your business, here are a few ways to get started:
1. Make sure your sales team has access to marketing resources to always be on the same page as marketing. This will ensure that your company’s sales and marketing strategies always align, giving you the best chance for success.
2. Encourage sales and marketing to share information and ideas. Doing so will foster a more collaborative environment and help everyone generate a more successful outcome
3. To increase sales and reach a broader customer base, companies should schedule joint department meetings where the two departments can discuss their plans.
4. Many organizations have difficulty encouraging teamwork between their sales and marketing departments. However, doing so can have many benefits. Creating incentives for sales and marketing to work together can help break down barriers between the two departments, leading to better communication and collaboration.
5. Set goals in both areas that align with each other. To have a successful business, you need to have plans in line. Sales and marketing should work together as one unit.
The Three Steps of Customer-Based Sales & Marketing Alignment
It will take some time for the alignment to materialize. You must first achieve three distinct stages before those two departments begin functioning effectively together:
- Your Sales and Marketing teams should be tight and have each other’s backs, and they shouldn’t be fighting or pointing fingers. You’re trying to build a “best friends” relationship, not a “brother-sister” relationship.
- There should be well-defined, consistent processes to ensure that everyone on both teams works toward the same goal and uses the same approach.
- It may be that your marketing is ineffective. Perhaps they didn’t get the message precisely right. They’re just people, and mistakes are natural. So a feedback loop must exist between the sales and marketing teams. Maybe the salesperson says, “You obtained a lot of fantastic customers from here.” Alternatively, “These clients are awful; could you try to avoid bringing any more of them in?” Both are crucial topics to discuss.
By collaborating, sharing information, and setting goals, sales and marketing can take your business to the next level.
In short, the continuing collaboration procedure should include the following elements:
- Meetings with the department head on a monthly or weekly basis.
- In brainstorming sessions, a collaboration between sales and marketing is essential.
- Throughout the content production process, you’ll have input from sales.
- Using an internal communication tool allows teams to communicate anytime and from anywhere.
- Sales, Marketing, and customers can all benefit from more sharing of content and other resources.
If you have any questions about how they can work together, contact us today!
