Photo provided by Gabrielle Henderson via Unsplash
"If you are not reaching your goal it might not be that the goal is too hard or you don't have the right people. It might be that you need to approach it in a new way.."
Some people don't need a coach or boss and others do. If you work in a corporate environment, you likely have a boss - even if you're the founder, owner or CEO - we all answer to someone (or a group of people).
The most important part of these relationships is the communication. The most successful relationships are when the people involved determine how to best communicate with each other in order to achieve the desired goal.
Communication is key to success.
This include the relationship between Marketing and Sales - or the teams involved with Marketing and driving results (like customer service, operations, IT, HR, etc. - you know, the customer journey / revenue team).
I've mentioned in other articles how Marketing needs to take the lead for the customer journey. Taking the lead means making sure everyone involved in the customer journey understands their role, what they need to do to support the customer and dates assigned for delivering items in their area of expertise.
Marketing, in this situation, ultimately is responsible for a portion of sales or generating revenue. In fact, the marketing strategy should align with the business goals which should align with the sales goals.
The role marketing plays in the customer journey is anything from conducting research, talking to the customers, creating content, managing the website, engaging with prospects and customers, collaborating with the other teams along the customer journey, creating email cadences, generating leads, overseeing a budget and developing team members.
There are more marketing responsibilities but you get the idea - Marketing is accountable for a wide variety of customer touch points that ultimately lead to a prospect becoming a customer.
When you involve people in the process, collaborate and communicate to ensure understanding, responsibilities and end result, you align with company expectations to generate revenue, reduce customer acquisition costs (CAC) and lengthen customer tenure and value (LTV).
While Marketing is typically seen as an expense that can easily be reduced or cut altogether, you're removing a major piece of the process that got you to where you are today. Marketing is a critical success factor (CSF) in your business.
Not sure you're on board with this? I challenge you to create a connection between your marketing team and revenue that's SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely) and challenge them to connect the dots between their marketing efforts and sales.
If you already have the dots connected and see how marketing actions drive revenue, you already have your marketing team responsible for revenue. Do they know that? How does it impact them, how they approach their work and how they spend their time?
As a marketer, sales manager or business owner, you can start here by taking the guesswork out of your marketing and holding marketing accountable for driving high quality leads that convert to sales: Create Marketing Clarity Course
If you know you need to connect the dots between marketing and sales, and want to create accountability for your marketing team and sales results, I'd love to help you create that connection.
What was your biggest take away from this post, or the action you will be taking as a result from reading this?
Let me know by leaving a comment below!
Vicki O'Neill is a fractional CMO in Ohio who helps small businesses go from plateau to grow. The problem she solves for small business owners is visibility resulting from lack of relevant marketing and engagement with the target customer. She founded KenKay Marketing in 2011, started the marketing and sales podcast, Connect the Dots, in 2018 and launched a 2nd podcast, The Power of 3X, in 2019 with her Gen Z daughters. Connect with Vicki on social media wherever you spend the most time. And subscribe to the weekly email for more! tips, news and what's coming soon!