In many companies, marketing, and sales teams don’t have the best relationship. They often work completely independently in silos without coordination, which often leads to misunderstandings, conflicts, or blame. The following tips show you as a marketer what is essential for building a productive relationship and how to effectively coordinate with your sales team.
Communicate empathetically and understandingly with your sales team
Although both departments share a common goal—to effectively close deals with new and existing customers and generate more revenue for the company—the strategies and tactics employed, and the metrics by which they are evaluated, are often different. Marketers build lead pipelines and create marketing messages that enable salespeople to close deals and generate revenue for a company.
Although the two departments are closely related and dependent on each other, it is often difficult for salespeople and marketers to gain insight into each other’s unique challenges.
In a study by Demand Gen, nearly half of B2B workers say the biggest issues aligning sales and marketing at their organization are in
- bad communication,
- faulty processes and
- different key figures for measuring success.
This can cost companies time, money, and customers in the long run. According to a Forrester study, 43 percent of CEOs say they have lost revenue due to the misalignment of both departments. For example, if a sales team doesn’t know how to work with the marketing team to promote a new product, the product may be under-promoted. Or, if sales reps don’t report customer problems from sales calls to their marketing colleagues, the marketing team’s campaign may not clearly communicate how a product can solve customers’ problems. This lack of transparency and communication then inevitably leads to a loss of sales.
But these problems can be eliminated. The solution to this lies in coordinated cooperation between sales and marketing [sales + marketing = smarketing] in order to win new customers better and more efficiently and to sell other products and services to existing customers.
If both departments coordinate their activities accordingly and communicate efficiently both internally and externally, this contributes significantly to a smooth customer experience. According to the Aberdeen Group, companies with good sales and marketing alignment achieve an average annual sales growth of 20 percent.
Both the sales and marketing departments face numerous challenges and opportunities to build and maintain trust and appreciation – not only with customers but also with each other.
To avoid ambiguity and deepen the relationship between both teams and identify opportunities for collaboration, it is important to communicate regularly with sales colleagues. There are many occasions, for example in
- Meetings,
- with a coffee
- during lunch,
- by email or
- via direct message.
Because both areas should understand the roles of the other – and how they complement each other.
An open dialogue is crucial when coordinating sales and marketing. Both teams have important prospects and you can learn a lot from your colleagues in sales. After all, both teams are working toward the same goal: generating revenue.
Empathy and mutual understanding of the challenges of the other department are the basis for a trusting cooperation in which both teams interact transparently, exchange ideas and celebrate joint and mutual success.
My tip to you
Therefore, look for “allies” from the sales team with whom you can exchange ideas on a regular basis. This can be 2-3 people with different experiences and sales styles who can assess new content or marketing initiatives. Ask them questions like: Is this project well received by the sales team, and if not, how can it be improved?
Agree on common goals with your sales team in the form of a service-level agreement
The marketing department commits to providing the sales team with a certain number of leads of a corresponding quality (defined by lead scoring). In return, the sales team commits to generating a certain amount of revenue from these leads.
Both key figures are dependent on each other; therefore, the goals must be set by both departments together. With the SLA, marketing, and sales agree on specific cooperation and responsibilities. The agreed goals and key figures are then evaluated and evaluated in various meetings.
My tip to you
Set up a monthly marketing meeting with the sales team that informs both areas about the performance of the previous month and current month, successes, insights, and updates about the product and upcoming projects, campaigns, or product launches.
If you are the head of marketing in your company, then you should also have a weekly meeting with your counterpart on the sales team to analyze results, discuss strategies and tactics, and evaluate your SLA. You should also share metrics such as the number of leads generated, MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads), percentage of leads processed, and lead-to-customer conversion rate.
Use the same tools as your sales colleagues
Often both departments use different tools and datasets. This not only prevents a uniform view of the customer database but also leads to friction in the customer experience.
My tip to you
Therefore, use the same tools as your sales colleagues if possible. A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system, for example, can ensure that marketing, sales, and support can access a uniform customer database. This makes company processes more efficient – and thus faster, more cost-effective, and, above all, more customer-centric.
With the help of your sales colleagues, identify customer objections in the sales process
It can happen that your marketing campaign did not turn out to be the expected success. Then you can analyze why it turned out that way. But it can be even more useful to ask your fellow salespeople for feedback. They can often give you a better insight into the mindset of customers. For example, what makes them (not) buy a product?
To ensure your projects add value to clients, it makes sense to devote at least some of your time to creating marketing collateral that directly addresses client objections. Depending on the company or product, these objections are raised at an even better point during product development.
There are generally two types of objections. On the one hand, these are objections to the actual functionality of a product or service. On the other hand, there can be objections to the perception or incorrect positioning of the offer.
My tip to you
As a marketer, you should find answers to objections based on incorrect positioning yourself, as these usually reveal gaps in the marketing-side product or company positioning or in marketing communication. It also makes sense if you also follow up on objections that were lost in the final stages of the sales process (Closed Lost Deal). If you know what leads to closing or losing a deal, you can better position your campaigns.
Identify who your sales team is competing with
As a marketer, you should know your competitors, monitor their strategies, and try constantly to improve your tactics. Your sales team can help you identify the company’s biggest competitors. They can also point you to companies that may be more of a competitor in the future.
My tip to you
Therefore, you should keep a close eye on creating or updating campaigns for these scenarios. Your sales team is likely to hear about emerging companies before any other team because they are closest to potential customers. Once you have a detailed list of competitors, it makes sense to conduct a competitive analysis or SWOT analysis to see how your marketing strategies compare to those of the other companies.
Measure the impact of your campaigns on sales metrics
As a marketer, you might determine the success of your project based on metrics like website traffic, clicks, engagement, or the total number of leads. However, if you want to understand how your work affects the success of your sales team, you should use attribution reporting, for example, to determine how many qualified leads and potential sales result from blog posts and emails, for example.
My tip to you
By taking the time to look at your project from a sales perspective, you can develop campaigns that will help you meet your marketing goals while empowering your sales team to close deals. Many marketers are content simply to measure the number of leads generated. However, to build trust with your sales peers, you should show that they are quality leads and that your marketing content and campaigns are contributing to sales.
Dive into your sales department
To get a sense of how your fellow salespeople share resources and exactly how they work, spend a day observing them. Also, listen to them during the sales pitch to understand the flow of a pitch, understand common customer objections, and analyze how and if the sales team is using your marketing materials.
My tip to you
In addition to observing sales talks, you can also take part in a talk evaluation. Many sales teams listen to group calls and then share feedback with each other. This is helpful because it sheds light on what makes a good conversation with a customer and how reps train each other.
Conclusion: A uniform alignment of both departments ensures inspiring customer experiences
If you want to effectively coordinate with your sales team, empathetic communication is key. This will help you learn more about the team’s different viewpoints and processes, and identify other ways to collaborate.
Only when sales and marketing work hand in hand will they be able to offer customers exactly what they need and when they need it. Only in this way will you be able to inspire them more than once and bind them to the company permanently through trust. The alignment of sales and marketing and the building of trust is not a one-time activity, but an ongoing process that requires communication and empathy.
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