Many B2B organizations are historically structured in silos where marketing and sales work separately. We’ve found that if sales and marketing can work better together, the results of everyone’s efforts are compounded.
This sounds simple, but it’s not always easy.
On this month’s episode of The Agency Scoop, Mark Saltarelli and I discuss sales and marketing teams and how to align them for success.
Why It’s Important to Align Teams
Better results = more sales = the company performs better = everyone benefits.
Barriers to Alignment
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,”
You’ve probably heard this quote from Albert Einstein a million times. We’ve found that many companies are stuck in the rut of “this is the way we have always done things around here.”
Traditional B2B companies aren’t thinking about changing the way they do business. Depending on the team members, it may even seem impossible to some to create change.
How to Start Getting on the Same Page
Here are some simple items you can do to start this process. As an agency, we sometimes help our clients go through this together.
- Define everything together. This includes the sales process, lifecycle stages, lead statuses and deal stages.
- (Over)Communicate. Talk through any campaigns happening, how tracking is set up and what to expect.
- Integrate technology. Work through a new technology together or find a way to integrate your current systems.
- Be transparent. Give each other access to information and keep the lines of communication open.
- Service level agreements (SLAs). Document defined goals, expectations, and responsibilities so you can easily measure where things broke down if necessary.
Ask each other, “How can I help?”
Marketing can help in the sales process by automating lead nurturing, developing relevant content, providing information on campaigns, lead scoring, and more!
Sales can provide feedback on quality of leads, which channels are working best, which offers work best, etc.
Alignment is an Ongoing Effort
We’re not talking about a one-time retreat where you hug and say you will work together but then never do it.
Sales and marketing teams need to have open, ongoing communication to make this work.
Scheduling a weekly or biweekly pipeline stand up meeting is an easy way to maintain this new relationship. Sales can give feedback on quality of leads and marketing can ask questions and make sure leads are being followed up with appropriately.
By having this type of relationship, marketing will continue to drive more qualified leads over time and sales will get the information they need to close sales more easily.
Aligning your teams may take a little time in the beginning, but will save everyone time each week and each month, making both teams more effective.
Listen to the full episode for more details and ideas on how to bring your teams together for success.
About The Agency Scoop
Each episode, we tackle a specific topic with another friend from Cypress North or pull in leaders from other companies. We’ll chat about what’s helping our agency grow, how we work with clients, things that bring us joy, and even the challenges we face. Please subscribe on your favorite podcast player to follow along!
