Both the sales and marketing departments work towards the same goal: generating leads and boosting the company’s revenue. But they also have their fair share of differences.
The sales team focuses on short-term goals such as lead generation and demand generation.Representatives interact with consumers individually to get them to make the purchase. They can communicate through telephone calls, emails, social media, or chatbots.
The process may take longer depending on how long it takes to persuade.During this time, the sales representative can try to understand customers’ pain points and find a tailored solution. If the customer likes the deal presented by the salesperson and completes the purchase in a single interaction, the process will be expedited.
The marketing team takes a broader view of the marketplace, and the objectives are mostly long-term. The team rarely deals with consumers directly. Marketing tactics have changed dramatically over the last decade, with everything becoming digital and instantaneous.This includes social media, blogs, website development, and many more.
What happens when sales and marketing work together?
It is critical for an enterprise’s growth that the sales and marketing teams agree and work on the same numbers. Misalignments are causing businesses to lose more than a trillion dollars per year. And that is definitely not a small number.
In reality, the two departments share a common goal – revenue growth. If we look more closely, both marketers and salespeople are also working towards making the customer happy. Once you put the customer at the centre of all strategies, it will be clear that the two teams are very much alike.
The two departments can help one another overcome their drawbacks and enhance each other’s strengths. Here are some numbers to prove the point:
- 36% more business growth
- 36% higher customer retention
- 27% faster profit growth
- 38% higher sales win rates
- 10% more reps hitting quota
Drawbacks of sales and marketing alignment
At times, sales and marketing lose focus while working and forget their common goal of serving consumers. A survey reported the six biggest challenges to the alignment:
- Lack of accurate/shared data on target accounts and prospects (43%)
- Communication (43%)
- Use of different metrics (41%)
- Broken/flawed processes (37%)
- Lack of accountability on both sides (25%)
- Reporting challenges (21%)
Work out these obstacles, and your business is bound to see the growth you had aimed for.
Three levels of sales and marketing alignment
At times the sales and marketing teams seem like bitter rivals, which makes the alignment look like a distant dream. When they lose focus, they also lose sight of possible assistance they could receive from one another.
Here is what you can do to bridge the gap:
Emotional Level
Relationships are not built overnight. The two departments must be brought together and trained to share valuable data with each other. Once they start having each other’s back, they will trust each other and grow in this symbiotic partnership.
Process level
The upper management level must put into practice processes with service rules that ensure that everyone in the two departments works together in the same direction. The processes must be clear and recurring.
Feedback loop level
Lead generation is a complex process; as is marketing. A lead may not always result in a sale. The communication between sales and the marketing team can sometimes get messed up. What can work is the constant sharing of feedback and working on it accordingly.
A salesperson can contact the marketing team to get more customers belonging to a particular consumer base. Alternatively, a marketer is impressed with the sales department and asks them to continue with what they are doing.
Once the teams get together, they can brainstorm and arrive at a common and more effective solution. The leaders from both teams can hold monthly meetings to help maintain focus and improve communication channels. The sales reps work more closely with the customers and hence can be involved in content generation. By following the above-mentioned tips, we at Resolute B2B are able to provide the best B2B services as well as digital marketing services in the industry.
