Making more profit with a synchronised Sales & Marketing Team

Guy Littlejohn By Guy Littlejohn -

How can Marketing and Sales be better synchronised?

Marketing and Sales departments are both vital to the growth of any company and in some companies they are fused into one team. But if for operational reasons, you have them separated out, how do you make sure both teams are singing from the same hymn sheet?

Quick refresher – the Marketing Department is the team responsible for creating awareness of the company. Representing the company’s values is one of its main objectives. On the flipside, when a potential customer takes notice of the marketing campaign, the Sales Department converts queries of potential customers into sales. They build a good relationship with the customers, so they continue to subscribe to the services or buy products. Marketing and Sales departments have different scopes of work, but at the end of the day they both work for the same goal: to increase profitability.

If the Marketing & Sales departments have the same objective, then it should be a no-brainer that these two departments need to collaborate. However, a study revealed that only 35% of average sales leaders have a good relationship with the marketing team. This misalignment costs $1 trillion (approximately £815 billion). Besides costing money, a dysfunctional relationship between the two departments can cause a slowdown in work, loss of customers, outdated campaigns, and even low employee retention.

Benefits of aligned sales & marketing team

With the Sales & Marketing departments are working together, you will reap the following benefits:

  1. Richer feedback. The marketing & Sales teams may have different perspectives & cultures. If communication is open, an overflow of ideas may arise, which can help the company be on top of any situation. They can give each other feedback based on their experience, and there will be creative problem-solving.
  2. Effortless transitions. The New Sales and Marketing Funnel shows how online shopping changed customers’ purchasing habits. Marketing efforts now drive brand awareness, interest, consideration, and attempt. If the Marketing & Sales teams are aligned, transitioning to a marketing-fuelled purchasing process will be easier.
  3. A Better understanding of customers. The marketing teams usually work on market research to know their customers’ demographic. Focus group discussions, surveys, social media & website insights, etc., help create the buyer persona. The sales team can use the buyer persona to find potential customers. Since the sales team talks to customers more closely, they understand the problems that buyers experience when trying to purchase the services or products.
  4. Higher employee retention. Once the Sales and Marketing teams understand, support, and respect each other, employee retention can improve.
  5. More revenue. By aligning the sales & marketing departments, Aberdeen Group reported the following:
  • Produce 32% more profit
  • Maintain 36% of customers
  • Hit 38% lead conversions
  • Better brand awareness
  • Higher customer spending

How to get the marketing and sales team aligned

  1. Use technology. Having a pipeline system can help both the marketing team and the sales team to move from one task to another seamlessly. You can do so by using Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. CRMs are a popular choice of technology used by companies with high marketing and sales department alignment. CRM is followed by email marketing technology, analytics tools, content management/publishing system, marketing automation, etc.
  2. Unified customer persona. Understanding the profile of your customers is an asset to the company. This way, the marketing and sales strategies will land effectively. Since the marketing team creates a buyer’s persona, they can share these results with the sales team.
  3. Consistent messaging. To make sure that message is clear. The marketing and sales team must understand and use the same terms. Marketing team members can shadow sales calls to know if the message is consistent so that the customers are not confused.
  4. Regular meetings. They say two is better than one. Brainstorming with the marketing and sales department will help the teams become updated on any changes happening. Ideas are also better produced because the two teams have different experiences, thus creating more comprehensive solutions to problems.
  5. Joint Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Having the same goal can help both teams stay motivated and get them on track. These goals can be customer retention, opportunity-to-win Ratio, cost per lead, etc. Remember to identify these objectives and consistently review them every quarter.

Technology changed the way people avail services and products. The Marketing Department and Sales Department cannot act separately anymore. The teams need empathy, good communication, chemistry, shared interests, trust, etc., to work harmoniously. It may take time and effort to forge these bonds, but the rewards will surely be worth it.

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