Tip 1: Communication, communication, communication.
As a marketer, could you sell? As someone in sales, could you be a marketer?
If you answered "yes" to either or both, we definitely need to talk! If you said "no" that would be the common response and reason why there's a a need to align marketing and sales.
Companies hire marketing people based on their education and experience in various capacities: design, development, research, messaging, PR, product management, marketing strategic, lead generation, SEO...and the list continues. Companies hire sales people based on their ability to achieve results, convert prospects to customers and create incremental revenue with existing customers.
What most companies, managers and employees in marketing and sales don't realize is this:
For sales to do their job, they need to understand what's going on in marketing.
For marketing, they need to understand what's involved in making a sale, not the sales process - the actual sales.
The most basic of any successful business is communication. Yet these two extremely important and high visibility teams don't communicate on a regular basis, work together or understand the job or purpose of the other team.
Taking a poll, who likes attending meetings? I'm guessing no one.
Yet, meeting is critical when you have a marketing department and sales department. These meetings must go beyond written communication. And each team needs to be involved and accountability in the other team's objectives. A starting point suggestion:
Leaders of marketing and sales collaborate on a meeting date for marketing and sales to meet (face-to-face is ideal, video for remote employees but a conference call works as well) and review then discuss KPIs (key performance indicators). Are the KPIs the same? Probably not.
There should be agreement and alignment on KPIs and accountability for both teams to ensure each is met and by whom. If names and due dates are indicated, there is less likely going to be alignment, agreement and lack of results.
If one group is tracking cost per acquisition and the other social media engagement but no communication on how these two work together, it's an opportunity to streamline.
Just think....if marketing is focused on the type of lead to chase and sales knows which products/services or customers will close the fastest - imagine how much more revenue can be made if these were in sync.
Share your experiences below!
NEXT on the reading list: Setting Expectations