How to Achieve Better Alignment between Sales and Marketing Teams?

Why is Alignment between Sales and Marketing Important?

What can the two teams do for each other?

Ways to Achieve Better Alignment between Sales and Marketing

Conclusion

 

Smarketing has become quite significant for many organisations to optimise their sales and marketing teams better. It is a combination of sales and marketing. It refers to the alignment of the two departments, which, when integrated, tackle target setting, strategies, executions and generate more revenue for the business.

 

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Why is Alignment between Sales and Marketing Important?

Misalignment between the two teams should never be underestimated. When they work together, they aim to create a more unified and satisfying customer experience and provide predictable results. The area that is highlighted in alignment is the goals and objectives. Teams in high alignment have defined shared goals and KPIs. Both the teams are on the same page regarding their target audience. 

Without a well-defined customer profile, your teams will be directionless. This will waste both time and resources. 

 

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What can the two teams do for each other?

To support sales, marketing can focus on guided buyers in the early stages of the customer's journey to prepare for engagement with the reps. Once the deal is closed, many continue to market other products to offer different solution values to customers. 

Additionally, the marketing team is dedicated to the buyers. They nurture & qualify the leads for the sales team. They have the competitive intel that the sales rep can use in their favour to interest the customer. Plus, they can also influence the market with ad campaigns, email marketing, social media marketing etc. The marketing team consistently engages with the customers.

All this to make sure that the customer is educated, engaged and interested in the organisation's product. Furthermore, they are interested in continuing business with the company and even recommended it to their acquaintances.

 

On the other hand, the Sales team has much to contribute to the marketing department. 

Sales, in short, is responsible for selling. Since the teams interact with customers daily, their insights can help the marketing teams design promotional strategies. Further, it will help them understand consumer needs, how efficient are the operations, and what is the product capable of. A well-aligned sales team can provide real-world solutions to the marketing departments. Customer health and efficiency in the existing processes can be used to educate customers accurately. Other information includes market dynamics and content validity. 

While working in tandem, this information ensures that the customer is updated about the latest product and is wiser to learn about newer products. 

 

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Ways to Achieve Better Alignment between Sales and Marketing  

Marketing and sales have similar operations in the organisation, but they differ widely in many ways. For example, marketing teams target better visibility in the lower-funnel outcomes. Whereas the sales team's wish to acquire visibility is from the upper funnel. As such, the customer information can be fragmented and may not be predictable. 

To avoid these situations, it is imperative that the organisation bridge the gap between the sales and marketing teams. Here's how companies can ensure that the two groups are aligned:

 

1. Goals Setting with a Collaborative Nature

To resolve misalignment between the marketing and sales team, the first and foremost thing to do is recognise all the goals. Then, ensure that the two groups are working towards the same set of plans. For example, it may be concerned with doubling the revenue, launching a product, organising campaigns, etc. The most essential thing is to have an agreement over the outcomes. 

This is because both the sales and marketing teams use their methods for their operations. Having the same goals and clear cut strategies that are shared between both departments can foster better cooperation. This can be beneficial for the organisation to earn more revenue. 

A full-fledged view of the prospect's journey is helpful for both teams. Nurturing is vital for any lead, and so is promoting a collaborative nature. In addition, both the teams will gain feedback from the other about the sales practices and marketing campaigns. 

 

2. Prepare a Strategy together

Over the years, the sales team and the marketing team went from being separate entities. Rather than working independently, sales and marketing teams should work together to analyse how the market is performing and where it stands. Additionally, two groups working together can bring about more creative ideas to promote the company's products or services in the market.

 

 

To do so, one can organise team workshops or schedule meetings between the two departments. A dynamic space for a discussion about marketing and sales strategies that are correlated yet efficient. It guarantees the organisation's success when both the teams responsible for trumping up the revenue collaborate. 

 

3. Execution Discussion

Before the company can execute the strategies, the sales and marketing will have to interact with each other. It may be complicated to collaborate between the two departments. Still, it can eliminate the repetition of strategies, sort out responsibility, and manage expectations. 

Make sure the teams get all the uncomfortable conversations out of the way before execution. The conflict is more than expected, and so is the friction. The teams will remain critical yet collaborative with each other. It keeps them competitive that persuades them to innovate their plans further. However, miscommunication between the two of the biggest departments can prove to be fatal for the organisation. 

It is ideal to ensure that neither team misses any meaningful conversation regarding their department as well. It increases transparency within the organisation and decreases gossip. Updates about meetings and short notes from the conference can be shared so that each one is informed and reminded about the topics discussed. 

 

4. Sales Enablement

This is ideal for elevating the sales and marketing alignment. It is a pretty popular technique used by many organisations for the said purpose. It is a neutral conduit between the two departments. This implies that when products/ service is being presented to clients, the sales team is thoroughly trained and guided on tackling each customer. It allows them to market the product effectively and closes the sales cycle faster. Further, this will help your marketing team design campaigns and target customers more accurately once the sales reps have a profile of the customers.

 

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Conclusion

The alignment of the sales and marketing team would improve the overall performance of the business. With the two departments working collaboratively, revenue increases, the sales cycle shortens so the sales team can focus on obtaining more customers. Therefore, keeping them in sync towards the same goals and objectives serve as an opportunity to elevate business performance.