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Aligning your Marketing and Sales teams shareholder database package around common goals can be a nightmare or an adventure, depending on the approach you decide to use. Smarketing is a strategy that will help you make the process more harmonious.
At Impulse we have conducted the 1st Smarketing Status Report in Peru, to find out if the Marketing and Sales areas are aligned.
The key is to help teams work together with a focus on company revenue and end-customer satisfaction. There are no magic formulas, but there are some practices that, when applied consistently, help Sales and Marketing complement each other as if they had never been separate departments and, in some cases, in conflict.
1. Fluid communication
To successfully integrate both teams, communication is key. Although both departments have developed the communication skills necessary for sales and marketing, we are talking about interpersonal communication skills to, for example, clearly state objectives, give assertive feedback in meetings, make specific requests and avoid misunderstandings.
Although they are in constant exchange through digital tools such as email, text messaging or social networks, offline communication should be prioritized through regular meetings and even working in shared spaces.
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2. Frequent meetings
In order to achieve fluid communication, weekly status meetings should be scheduled between both teams and monthly meetings where only the area managers are invited. It is also necessary to meet with the people who have just joined the teams to align them with the current marketing and sales strategy.
This may seem obvious, but even if there are process manuals, nothing replaces face-to-face communication between members. In addition, a leader who tells them what stage the campaign is in, what their specific functions are, with examples, who to report to, and what mistakes have already been made in the past.
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3. Do events together
Training workshops, seminars, motivational talks or integration events outside the office are very useful to get both teams to mix, get to know each other in other areas and find it more natural for them to work together on their strategic plans.
The goal of these events is to build trust between teams , one of the most important elements of any Smarketing strategy. But trust cannot be imposed, it must be built. Get your teams out of the routine, help them connect on a more personal level, and you will see the results when they return to the office.
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4. Share files
Marketing and Sales alignment should be simple and feel natural. Creating a cloud repository, with tools like Drive or Dropbox, where all Marketing and Sales files are stored is crucial. This accessibility helps avoid rework and back-and-forth emails with requests for information that can be accessible to all teams with a click. Of course, the organization system must be defined beforehand to avoid clutter.
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Let's see this with an example: if Sales has access to Marketing's campaign calendar, they can make contributions to adjust the strategies according to their objectives. On the other hand, Marketing can help Sales improve the copy or content of their materials so that they perform better in closing potential clients.
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5. Involve both teams in content creation
In line with the previous point, the joint creation of content is one of the most efficient Smarketing strategies . You can write an excellent e-book or an appropriate landing page, but if it is not generating leads, Sales can provide insights that improve the product to make it efficient.
The first 5 minutes of weekly meetings can be spent brainstorming together on topics and themes, sharing a cloud document or whiteboard in the office where both teams contribute their ideas for new content. Marketing can also use ghostwriting to raise the public profile of salespeople and help them build trust with leads to close them.
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6. Create service level agreements
Sales complains that Marketing isn't producing enough qualified leads. Marketing complains that Sales isn't getting results from the leads they're getting. The solution? Group them all around agreements that must be fulfilled without fail by both teams.
Commitments are made based on the real capabilities and tasks that both departments should undertake - no promises - and they must be fulfilled within the estimated timeframes. In addition, concepts must be standardized, for example: what is meant by a qualified lead and how many will be generated per week? To do this, we carry out a prospect qualification strategy, or "Lead Scoring" to reach and define the profile of the ideal client.
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7. Set joint KPIs for the teams
It is essential that the teams are on the same page. Therefore, in addition to service level agreements, common objectives can be established with specific KPIs, so that achieving them becomes a priority for both departments .
This will encourage them to work in synergy and prevent one department from taking over the other, which is very common in organizations. By knowing that they need each other, salespeople will stop feeling like “money makers” and Marketing will give up its image of “misunderstood creative geniuses” to work together towards the same goal: income through the business’s product or service.
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8. Listen to sales calls
When Marketing witnesses firsthand how Sales communicates with leads, their responses and challenges, they will immediately think of content, campaigns and strategies to achieve success on calls. It is also an excellent learning experience for creating better follow-up emails based on common responses from leads.
9. Share the same CRM
It is crucial that both teams share the same automation technology that will help them share data to learn from each other about what is working and what is not. This is achieved by sharing the same CRM or automated system . The most useful ones, such as Hubspot, combine Sales and Marketing information in real time, generating timely insights for joint strategies.
Sharing the same software will allow you to have fresh data available to everyone at all times. You will be able to save time in data processing and also save costs by centralizing all processes on the same platform and not paying double or even triple for separate programs.
