Is the only way to align sales and marketing teams in your business, by fostering trust?
Exactly why is this important?
Working, as we do, on behalf of clients in diverse sectors, with equal diversity of services, products and markets, it’s clear how important a synergy between sales and marketing is. A ‘gap’ in this area can be a dangerous thing.
Is ‘dangerous’ too strong a word? At the very least, it’s counter-productive. If the marketing team don’t know what the sales team need, to support their day to day activity and the sales team aren’t aware of the marketing objectives, the whole relationship can be weak.
If you have a dedicated marketing team it represents both the creators and defenders of your business brand. The team can be protective of it. They’ve spent hours spitballing about tone of voice, points of difference, the message they project to their target audience. They’ve explored designs and strap lines to the nth degree. The decisions they’ve made, will help to create credibility amongst your competition. There’s no question of the importance of this work.
However, is it easy for your sales team to translate and use the results effectively within their role, to reach your business objectives?
Maybe this is where the trust comes in and it needs to work both ways.
On one side, sit the guardians of your brand. On the other, the team responsible for using your business messages in a practical way, to support their activity and secure opportunities with your prospects.
If your sales team needs to disrupt the status quo, in order to reach your business objectives, how effective alone, will a call or email be? To surround your prospects through multiple channels, will likely require sales and marketing to align.
Here are some tips for aligning sales and marketing teams:
Prioritise collaboration.
Facilitating joint meetings is a good way of encouraging both teams to understand what’s important to the other. It will help to align messages, goals and KPI’s.
Encourage joint visits.
Sending someone from your marketing team on a sales visit is another way to build awareness of what each team needs to succeed.
Foster good will.
Bonding activities across the two teams can nurture trust and communication between them.
In summary:
Aligning sales and marketing teams, is a strong, effective, way to achieve your business objectives. It’s possible through improving communication and growing trust. Why not look at how this is working currently for you and adopt a practical approach if you find improvements could be made?
Broadley Speaking has over 20 years’ experience helping B2B brands align their sales and marketing teams to boost sales success. If you would like to know how we can help your brand, please get in touch for a free initial consultation.