It’s not uncommon for companies to have a difficult time working together. When you’re both responsible for the same goal, it can be hard to agree on what you need to do and how you should do it. That doesn’t need to happen, though, as there are ways that any company can strengthen its sales and marketing partnership.
1. Defining Your Sales and Marketing Process
Having defined sales and marketing processes will help both departments work more efficiently and become more successful.
After defining a sales process, the sales team will then know what they need to do to sell the company’s products or services while working with marketers. For example, suppose a salesperson needs additional information about a product before making a sale. In that case, they might ask the marketer for this information first before trying other ways of getting it themselves. This way, both departments can work together more effectively towards one goal instead of wasting time by working separately.
2. Learn Each Other’s Roles
Marketers may not know everything about sales and vice versa. By learning each other’s roles, marketers can help salespeople with specific tasks, while salespeople can teach marketers about certain aspects of the company that they are not familiar with.
For example, if a salesperson is having trouble getting through to decision-makers because they are always unavailable, the marketer might analyze times and figure out which times and which communication channels their target audience uses and then relay this information to the sales team. It is also a way for both departments to work more efficiently together, improving their partnership.
3. Be Proactive
Marketers should be proactive by marketing products and services to buyers instead of waiting for salespeople to ask them. This way, marketers will be funding the company’s revenue while helping the sales team get through to more potential customers.
Salespeople should also be proactive in their selling process by reaching out to leads and acting on insights they might have learned from the marketer. By being proactive, both departments can work together more efficiently and achieve better results as a team.
4. Be Transparent
Marketers should be transparent with their data when communicating with salespeople to share any insights about the company’s buyers. Additionally, salespeople should be transparent with their progress and what they are working on to give marketers an idea of how well their campaigns perform. By being transparent, both departments can better understand what they need to improve the partnership and achieve better results.
5. Be Open To Each Other’s Ideas
Marketers should be willing to try new strategies such as using digital marketing or social media to reach their customers while salespeople should be open to new ways of building relationships. This way, both departments can start working together and listen and implement the ideas and strategies of each other. By doing this, both departments can improve their final results by using a mix of different marketing methods and sales techniques, strengthening the partnership between them.
6. Set Realistic Expectations
Marketers should set realistic goals with their sales partners to have clear objectives that lead to results. For example, marketers may want 75 leads per month, but if they know that this number of prospects are not typically interested in their product or service, they should aim for a lower number that is still achievable. On the other hand, salespeople should also set realistic expectations for their marketers by not expecting them to generate unrealistic leads or sales numbers.
Strengthen Your Sales And Marketing Partnership
The most effective way for sales and marketing to work together towards the same goal is by strengthening their relationship. When both departments have a good relationship, they can communicate more effectively and achieve better results.
Marketers should strengthen their relationship with sales by simply getting to know them better personally. Salespeople should also try to get to know marketers better by asking about what they do, their team members, and how they can effectively communicate. These types of conversations will help strengthen the relationship between both departments, which will lead to their partnership becoming more effective.
For sales and marketing to work together effectively, they need to have a good relationship. By being transparent, being proactive, and being open to new ideas, the two departments can improve their partnership and achieve better results.
