How to align marketing and sales teams?
Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2024 8:04 am
Marketing and salesWe present 4 initiatives used by successful B2B companies to improve the relationship between marketing and sales and thus positively impact the business.
Aligning Marketing and Sales Teams : One of the challenges facing B2B companies today is the integration of marketing and sales departments. Although the success of both areas will be measured by their positive impact on sales, Marketing and Sales often fail to align their goals and strategies.
What can be done to close the gap between marketing and sales?
What are the causes that can explain this disconnect between marketing and sales?1. The sales team likes to work their own way.
Salespeople are a unique breed within the company. Many of them, if something works, have no incentive to make any changes and it becomes their way of doing things all the time. And frankly, it's hard to blame a salesperson who is successful at their job for not looking for new sales methods or embracing certain changes. Why try to fix what isn't broken?
2. Lack of real information on the results of the marketing action
Until recently, marketing consisted of targeting the masses with push advertising, through direct mail campaigns, print ads in trade magazines, brochures or participation in trade fairs.
Today we are faced with a very different scenario . The marketing team has a wide range of tools to obtain real and non-subjective data, but the problem is that many companies, especially in the industrial or B2B field, are not aware of the amount of valuable information that marketing can provide and the direct effect that this information can have on the generation of qualified leads for sale. What is the result of all this? We have a marketing department but we do not take it very seriously…
3. The two departments do not know what the other is doing
Everyone has their own job and when there is pressure to generate sales or produce, the last thing we worry about is what they are spending their time on in the other department.
4. Lack of direction
Especially in manufacturing-oriented companies , people new zealand whatsapp mobile phone number list who oversee marketing and sales do not think about improving the integration of both departments to promote business growth. Unfortunately, if the ultimate decision-maker is not clear about this, those at the bottom probably aren't either.
What can be done to improve alignment between marketing and sales?
We provide you with 5 recommendations on how to align marketing and sales
1. Encourage dialogue between departments and try to align their objectives
The first step is relatively simple: start talking . Arrange a meeting with all the key players from each of the marketing and sales teams. The marketing team should be prepared to brief Sales on the goals of their marketing strategy. It is imperative to help Sales understand that they are in the same boat and that their primary goal is to help them generate qualified leads and business opportunities.
But to do this, marketing must also empathize with the sales team . What do they want to achieve? What are their commercial objectives? How many deals need to be closed to meet objectives? How many potential clients are needed and what profile is best suited to achieve these objectives?
2. Jointly define what both parties understand by what it means for a lead to be sales qualified.
Aligning Marketing and Sales Teams : One of the challenges facing B2B companies today is the integration of marketing and sales departments. Although the success of both areas will be measured by their positive impact on sales, Marketing and Sales often fail to align their goals and strategies.
What can be done to close the gap between marketing and sales?
What are the causes that can explain this disconnect between marketing and sales?1. The sales team likes to work their own way.
Salespeople are a unique breed within the company. Many of them, if something works, have no incentive to make any changes and it becomes their way of doing things all the time. And frankly, it's hard to blame a salesperson who is successful at their job for not looking for new sales methods or embracing certain changes. Why try to fix what isn't broken?
2. Lack of real information on the results of the marketing action
Until recently, marketing consisted of targeting the masses with push advertising, through direct mail campaigns, print ads in trade magazines, brochures or participation in trade fairs.
Today we are faced with a very different scenario . The marketing team has a wide range of tools to obtain real and non-subjective data, but the problem is that many companies, especially in the industrial or B2B field, are not aware of the amount of valuable information that marketing can provide and the direct effect that this information can have on the generation of qualified leads for sale. What is the result of all this? We have a marketing department but we do not take it very seriously…
3. The two departments do not know what the other is doing
Everyone has their own job and when there is pressure to generate sales or produce, the last thing we worry about is what they are spending their time on in the other department.
4. Lack of direction
Especially in manufacturing-oriented companies , people new zealand whatsapp mobile phone number list who oversee marketing and sales do not think about improving the integration of both departments to promote business growth. Unfortunately, if the ultimate decision-maker is not clear about this, those at the bottom probably aren't either.
What can be done to improve alignment between marketing and sales?
We provide you with 5 recommendations on how to align marketing and sales
1. Encourage dialogue between departments and try to align their objectives
The first step is relatively simple: start talking . Arrange a meeting with all the key players from each of the marketing and sales teams. The marketing team should be prepared to brief Sales on the goals of their marketing strategy. It is imperative to help Sales understand that they are in the same boat and that their primary goal is to help them generate qualified leads and business opportunities.
But to do this, marketing must also empathize with the sales team . What do they want to achieve? What are their commercial objectives? How many deals need to be closed to meet objectives? How many potential clients are needed and what profile is best suited to achieve these objectives?
2. Jointly define what both parties understand by what it means for a lead to be sales qualified.