Why is it that so many Sales and Marketing functions find it challenging to work together? Is it something fundamental? Are all salespeople from Mars and marketers from Venus? Or, is it possible to create an environment where these two teams not only get along brilliantly but also super-charge your growth strategy?
If you can align your Sales and Marketing teams to work effectively together costs go down, revenue goes up, content is more relevant, and customers receive a more responsive experience. It's a no-brainer. However, too often this is overlooked or put in the ‘too difficult’ box. Possibly overlooked because leadership hasn't spotted that Sales and Marketing should work in tandem. Probably ‘too difficult’ because your Sales and Marketing teams don’t get on.
Sales and Marketing are your customer departments. They share responsibility for large parts of your customer’s journey with your organisation. Both functions have the same ultimate goal - to increase revenue. Both are focused on understanding your customer needs, wants and issues. Both are responsible for influencing and persuade these customers that your product or service is the best option for solving their problem. In fact, they have so much in common they should be considered corporate siblings.
However, like many siblings, Sales and Marketing often don’t get on, and it’s not entirely their fault. Here are the eight steps to take to support your Sales and Marketing functions to work effectively together:
1. Define the difference between Sales and Marketing
The first step is to articulate and communicate the difference between Sales and Marketing at your company and which is responsible for what. A simple definition that works in my experience is that Sales is one-to-one and Marketing is one-to-many. There is more to it, of course, but this is an excellent baseline to establish. A proposal document is Sales; a brochure is Marketing. A pitch meeting is Sales; an event is Marketing. Easy.
2. Establish equality between Sales and Marketing
Next, using the above definition, make sure that Sales and Marketing are organised as equals in the company and that everyone knows it. Be clear on which team takes the lead on work and how the other side supports. Eg. Sales leads on bids and Marketing should support with good quality content that Sales can tailor. Marketing leads on online content, but Sales should give regular feedback and pick up leads generated. Sales and Marketing need each other. They should be relying on each other's expertise to be successful and to provide your customers with a coherent, consistent brand story.
3. Set shared growth-based goals
Often businesses make the mistake of only setting measurable, revenue-based targets for the Sales team. This upsets the balance between your Sales and Marketing teams because Sales appear to be the only ones generating results. Marketing will feel misunderstood and under-appreciated. Set shared goals for the Sales and Marketing teams to work on together to foster collaboration and understanding. It will make your Marketing more targeted and make Sales uphold your brand narrative.
4. Build campaigns together
Now that Sales and Marketing have some share growth targets, they will be much more enthusiastic to work together on campaigns. Bringing Sales and Marketing talent to campaign planning will lead to better understanding of audiences, stronger content themes, more focused channel distribution and more visibility of how effective a campaign has been in generating leads and influencing customers. Your business will not only enjoy more high-quality leads but also reap the rewards of an excellent content strategy and unified voice across channels.
5. Encourage frequent knowledge sharing
Good communication is essential to a healthy relationship between Sales and Marketing. Precisely because your Sales and Marketing teams are responsible for different parts of the customer journey, it’s imperative that both sides share learning and experiences. How often have your Sales team complained that they didn't know Marketing were running an event on 'their patch'? How often does Marketing feel kept at arm's length from the pitch process? It's bad for your people, and bad for your customer - a disconnect between Sales and Marketing can fracture the brand experience of the customer which will lead to mistrust. Create monthly sector or market-based meetings to share pipeline, priorities, give feedback and brainstorm campaigns.
6. Share systems and the customer journey
To foster an environment of openness and collaboration for Sales and Marketing make sure you have a single system for tracking and reporting Sales and Marketing activity and that everyone has full access. Your marketing automation, campaigns and databases should be stored in the same platform as your leads, pipeline, deals and customer feedback data. Not only will this build trust between the teams but also having a single view of the customer will help both share the customer journey. Remember it’s Marketing’s job to kick starts the customer journey with strategies to reach and influence potential and existing customers to generate a lead to pass to Sales. Sales then pick up this lead and work with the customer to convert the lead to a sale. Also, if you’ve got Customer Experience integrated into your Marketing function (which you should have), Marketing is listening and learning from the customer feedback and feeding both teams with insight to influence strategies. Open dialogue and a single view of the customer journey will identify what's working, what's not working and where the most significant opportunities are for both functions.
7. Be honest about leads
Often Sales complains that the leads Marketing generates are useless, and Marketing complains that Sales ignores the leads. It is essential that both teams build trust and learn to be brutally honest with each other about the origin and quality of a lead. Where did it come from? If we don't know, ask the customer: “How did you hear about us?” Did someone recommended you?” “Have you been to one of our events?” Then record any additional touch points such as website visits, direct mails read, media viewed, events attended. Finally, be honest about how we closed the deal. What was it that convinced the customer? If you are blessed with a high-value, low-volume sale cycle, you have no excuses for not having this data on every deal won and lost. Get your Sales and Marketing teams together regularly to debate openly and honestly what these insights tell you. And then agree to do more of what works!
8. Insist on shared reporting
With shared goals, campaigns and knowledge the final step is to insist that Sales and Marketing report their successes and learnings together. This shared accountability and transparency will ensure that your business understands the value of both Sales and Marketing and that no one is under any illusions that campaign building and lead generation is more successful when both functions are engaged and supported.
9. Don't get hung up on reporting lines
There is a tendency to think that reporting lines fix dysfunctional behaviours. They don't. Open and honest cultures do. Don't worry if your Salespeople sit in Operations while Marketing sits centrally. That's entirely logical and doesn't stop them from working closely as a team. Pair-off a Marketing Business Partner and Sales Manager together, assign shared growth targets, encourage joint campaigns, honest conversations and insist that they work on reporting together and those reporting lines differences will melt away.
Do let us know if you've got any additional tips for Sales and Marketing alignment success in the comments below.