The Benefits of Synergy in Sales and Marketing
Although sales and marketing work towards the same goal of producing revenue for the company, they typically work separately with each department maintaining its own data and resources. By joining forces, sales and marketing can be much stronger together than they are separately.
Specific Tasks of Marketing and Sales Departments
Marketing employees perform tasks unique to their experience and skill set, including the following:
- Branding: The marketing department creates the look and feel of a company’s brand. It’s up to them to remain consistent with it, monitor it, and change it if necessary.
- Establish analytics and other metrics: Taking ownership of these tasks helps sales to have greater insight into which campaigns are successful and which ones need more tweaking.
- Marketing strategy: Marketers create plans and campaigns that help the company meet its objectives and goals.
- Support the sales team: Some actions the marketing department can perform to make things easier for sales include helping to create customized lead scoring and lead generation programs, provide collateral, and offer creative support.
While a sales-driven organization can obtain excellent results, it also needs to consider its future endeavors. This is where a strong relationship with marketing comes into play. The following are some specific tasks that the sales departments should manage:
- Closing: Ultimately, everything sales and marketing do leads to this. Salespeople must always be thinking of ways to close a deal.
- Communication: Strong communication skills mean staying connected to clients, managers, team members, and members of the marketing team in order to perform the most effectively.
- Emphasis on client relationships: Salespeople must take responsibility for their individual relationships with clients. Marketing is a good place to turn when they struggle.
- Obtain crucial information: Although sales professionals tend to be action-oriented, they also need to be detail-oriented enough to obtain details about customers and use those details to their advantage.
The good news is that the two departments can overlap responsibilities to ensure that best possible outcome.
Don’t Use Separate Department Lingo
Different departments of the same company tend to develop a language all their own, and sales and marketing are no exception. However, each needs to know what the other is talking about to work well together. A consultant can help both teams establish a common language and scale to measure objectives and goals.
Use the Same Customer Relations Management (CRM) Software
A CRM system that allows each team to see actions and notes by the other team will allow both to work together more closely. It also gives them the opportunity to share resources more readily, such as analytics to monitor specific campaigns.
Marketing Must Send High-Quality Leads
One thing that sales teams often feel frustrated about is the low quality of leads they receive from the marketing department. They’re either not ready to make a purchase, only looking for information, or likely to go cold early in the sales cycle. By shifting their focus from quantity to quality, the marketing department can keep the sales department happy and further strengthen their partnership.
In the end, the willingness to approach tasks with an attitude of service to one another can make even a previously challenging relationship transform into one of mutual respect.