Customers are bombarded with advertising messages every day. In an overcrowded digital landscape, they have no meaningful interaction. The public wants a deeper connection with the brand. So if you want to capture your customers' attention, you need to create a focused and unified experience that fits their unique needs.
You can't create that experience without aligning sales and marketing, and the gap between sales and marketing is widening. According to Super Office, it costs companies more than $1 trillion a year. A study has shown that 85% of companies believe that the integration of marketing and sales is the best option for improving business performance.
Don't worry if you find sales and marketing a good match. You are not alone with this problem. Here are four key steps you can take to bridge the gap between your team:
1. Create the right organizational structure. Often the difference between sales and marketing starts with structure. Many purchases in today's market are made digitally. As customers research independently, sales messages need to be more marketing oriented. But who is responsible for which element?
"For leaders to work in the right alignment between sales and marketing, they need to create the right organizational structure and define the roles, governance, accountability and skills needed to achieve the goals," said Thomas Manders, founder and CEO of Coffee. + I don't know. , an Experiential Engagement Partner focused on providing customer engagement solutions that drive growth. "This will help manage the customer lifecycle and ensure that all distinct parts of the buying process are considered and managed, including demand generation, customer service, content, business development and issue management." Products".
By clarifying the structure and responsibilities of your sales and marketing teams, you help clear up confusion. Everyone will understand their responsibilities and how their combined efforts will contribute to your company's bottom line.
2. Align key performance indicators.
The level of arrogance has always been a problem in the marketing industry. After all, no one wants to lose face, and tracking the ROI of multi-channel marketing can be difficult. Sales teams, on the other hand, often set revenue goals that reward results. This immediately creates a difference between quantity-oriented marketing metrics (eg, likes, shares) and quality-oriented sales metrics (eg, average transaction size, value per share).
"Most of the time, the problem is that the two functions measure different things," said Jeffrey L. Cohen, research director in Gartner's Marketing Leaders practice. “For example, many marketing teams are responsible for providing a set of leads (or those who meet marketing needs). This is a quantitative metric. Sales is responsible for providing channel metrics and revenue metrics, most of which are qualitative. If someone isn't on board with the solution, it's hard to close a deal. When both teams measure the impact on revenue, they can see the results using the same types of metrics.
By agreeing on some common metrics and how to report them, you align your team and save time and effort comparing performance reports.
3. Manage the communication process.
Once you've established your organizational structure and defined your KPIs, you can focus on activating your implementation strategy and improving your communication. According to a McKinsey study, employees who feel engaged in communication at work are nearly five times more likely to report higher productivity. By improving communication between sales and marketing, you set both teams up for success.
For some businesses, this may mean organizing regular visits or brainstorming sessions. For example, Megan Flannery, director of revenue marketing at Drift, says her company holds weekly collaboration meetings for the marketing team, sales development team, account management team and partner team.
"There are four groups that are meeting revenue goals broken down by segment," Flannery said. “Each of these key groups reports on its growth and compares its performance with other groups. This continuous communication and collaboration helps the processes work together and eliminate potential differences”.
4. Create customer profiles.
Just as you can take the same hike for three friends in different ways (for example, focusing on a beautiful view, a short hike to a campsite, or an Instagram-worthy photo), you need to understand the aspects of your business. for you to different target groups. . One effective way to do this is to create buyer personas so you can understand the specific needs, preferences and personalities of different target segments.
"Many business owners skip this step to save time, but skipping this step will hinder your success," says Abby Miller, editor of DMNews. embedded prerequisites. Employees also help their team members express opposing views and ask questions in a way that doesn't personalize the conversation. Instead of your sales rep telling your marketing team, 'This won't work,' objections can be made in a less confrontational way."
Using customer personas, you can better engage your marketing team, help them understand the right channels and formats to share your message, and learn more about audience behavior. This information can be shared with your sales team to further personalize the buyer experience.
Getting your marketing and sales on the same page is never easy, but it can be done. Follow these four tips and you'll be surprised how quickly and effectively you can rebuild two teams.