How they complement each other and are crucial in driving revenue growth
Sales & Marketing: Usually are two sides of the same coin but have historically been seen as two separate departments/teams in most organizations.
But what if they weren’t?
What if Sales & Marketing teams did not have different strategies, goals, and outcomes?
What if, cohesiveness and collaboration become the shared core values of these two teams, what one might collectively call the business team?
Such organizations, where the Sales and Marketing teams have achieved alignment in the truest sense, tend to take their competition head-on, and win, with ease.
If we were to classify the reasons for any organization’s existence and success, we could probably fit into one of the 3 buckets:
- Business or Customers: Solve an actual problem that customers or probable customers have and be good at it.
- People: Build a force that you trust and, more importantly, one that trusts you!
- Money or Revenue or Profits: Be profitable while doing the above.
In fact, the first-ever professional definition of Marketing that I heard, back in my MBA days, was “To solve customers’ problems profitably”. Furthermore, in most MBA courses, specialized courses on Sales would be few to none. However, there is no shortage of courses in Marketing.
Situations, however, change once we move from the classroom to the corporate world and a clear distinction starts appearing between the two functions.
In most organizations, sales looks at deals and marketing looks at leads. Deals & Leads: Anagrams, and possibly one of the simplest ones to explain.
So, let’s do some rearranging ourselves and see how sales can start looking at leads and marketing can start looking at deals. Because it is time that both these teams start complementing each other in order to drive revenue growth while being vary of the possible challenges and roadblocks organizations might face while doing so.
So, what exactly is Sales and Marketing alignment?
Source: SuperOffice
In the simplest of explanations, it’s about creating a process where sales and marketing work towards a common set of goals. Alignment means that both teams work together to create a seamless experience for customers, from the initial marketing touchpoints to the final sales conversion.
We’re talking about more than communication and information exchange here. To achieve a true sense of alignment, both teams should end up speaking the same language, track the same metrics, and work out a strategy that is cross-functional. By doing so, the effectiveness of understanding the customer’s persona, and decoding their journey goes up exponentially and leads to being present in places where the customer is. Fish where they swim.
Developing a Sales and Marketing Alignment
Both sales and marketing teams bring unique skills and expertise to the table that can be leveraged to achieve sales and marketing alignment.
Source: Nebula Consulting
The marketing team brings a unique set of skills and expertise and is responsible for building brand awareness and generating demand for products or services through various marketing channels. By understanding user behavior and preferences, they can develop effective marketing campaigns and a content strategy that resonates with the target audience.
But the question remains as to what resonates with the target audience. And that’s where the sales team comes into the picture. Because the sales team carries one-to-one interactions with the buyers and prospective buyers, they can bring a wealth of knowledge about the customer’s buying process, objections, and motivations, which can be extremely helpful in creating content and campaigns that speak to the customer’s needs and address their pain points.
This process makes it highly evident that it is a continuous circle and not two disjoint functions.
Establish a Shared Understanding of the Customer Journey
Sales and marketing teams should work together to map out the customer journey and identify key touchpoints where both teams can collaborate to provide a seamless experience. This shared understanding of the #customerjourney will help teams to align their goals, strategies, and metrics around the customer’s needs and preferences.
Define a Common Language and Metrics
The two teams must also use a common language and metrics to measure success and track progress. This includes defining shared KPIs, such as lead generation, conversion rates, and revenue growth, and using a shared vocabulary to describe the customer journey and sales process.
Foster a Culture of Collaboration
Organizations should foster a culture of collaboration and mutual respect between sales and marketing teams. This includes encouraging cross-functional training, facilitating open communication, and recognizing and rewarding joint successes.
Implement Technology Solutions
Technology solutions, such as CRM systems and marketing automation software, can help to facilitate sales and marketing alignment by providing a shared platform for data sharing and #communication. These tools can also help to automate the sales process, reduce manual labor, and improve efficiency.
Measure and Optimize Results
Businesses should regularly measure and optimize sales and marketing alignment efforts to ensure that they are driving revenue growth and achieving their goals. This includes monitoring KPIs, analyzing data, and making data-driven decisions to improve the customer experience and maximize revenue.
This set of processes seems simple enough to understand and not too difficult to implement either. But as with any new process, for teams beginning to try it out, it will require focused and concerted efforts from both groups to make it work.
Something to remember would be that each of these, If not executed with complete conviction can become a challenge or a roadblock in itself and can lead to what may be perceived as ‘failure’. This however is not the case. It just needs continuous improvement.
When sales and marketing teams work together in a cohesive and collaborative manner, they can create more effective and efficient sales processes, improve the #customerexperience, and enhance #brand value.
Source: DemandGen
Achieving sales and marketing alignment requires a shared understanding of the customer journey, a common language, and metrics, a culture of #collaboration, and technology solutions.
Sales and marketing alignment is crucial in driving revenue growth and business success. By following these steps, organizations can reap the benefits of having both teams aligned to a common goal and thus succeed in today’s hyper-competitive business landscape.
