Clichés are cliches for a reason: they’re often true. So, when you hear that “two heads are better than one,” or that “we’re better together,” those are accurate... especially when it comes to marketing and sales.
Marketing and sales teams shouldn’t operate in a vacuum. In fact, the greatest revenue marketing success occurs when the two departments wholly align with the common goal of supporting the company’s revenue marketing strategy.
How to Foster Marketing and Sales Alignment
1. Create the Right KPIs
When marketing and sales work towards vastly different goals and track separate key performance indicators (KPIs), that’s creating missed opportunities. The teams are stronger when they each have a deeper comprehension of company-wide goals. Employees need a reason and motivation to want to work with other teams.
The right KPIs can be those reasons. As CEO, you can work with the heads of marketing and sales to establish KPIs that align with the overall revenue strategy. When both departments understand what they’re working towards, then there’s alignment across the board and it’s easier for teams to perform in sync and boost that bottom line.
2. Foster Communication
Communication between marketing and sales is key, and not only when marketing is ready to pass warm leads over to sales. When open and frequent conversation is present at every stage of the funnel, this ensures that teams never fall out of alignment.
Automated processes help sales and marketing stay aware of each prospect’s every need. By having a centralized location to communicate and analyze data, marketing and sales can always be in the know.
Keeping both sides aligned when it comes to content creation is also important. Marketing can create sales enablement content by learning from sales, who learn from the customers. Sales can tell marketing what customer pain points they hear about, and at what stage those paint points are prominent. This informs marketing what kind of content they need to create in order to drive sales success or even answer prospects’ questions before they ever speak to sales.
3. Stay Transparent
When there’s a company culture of transparency, everyone has insights into what’s happening and what could be improved across campaigns and processes.
Transparency and communication are promoted by automation. Having data about the marketing and sales funnels in one place makes it crystal clear which prospects need to be worked at all times. Tracking designated KPIs in a centralized dashboard also holds both teams accountable and motivates them to succeed.
4. Take a Walk in Each Other’s Shoes
Marketing needs to think like sales. Sales needs to think like marketing. This is how each team can learn to understand the other’s goals and responsibilities.
This deep understanding might be achieved through having the teams train together, or by having them attend periodic meetings to see what the other team is up to and how they do their job. This can help each team form an idea of how they can help the other reach their goals and know what they can be doing better.
5. Remember the Customer
The customer is the one that really matters. If the customer experiences a cohesive process from MQL to SQL and beyond, your close rate will increase. When it’s time for sales to reach out to a prospect, they should have a full understanding of where the lead is at, and what marketing has done thus far to drive engagement.
With a high-functioning team that communicates well operating behind the scenes, sales can close more, happier customers (and we all know happy customers become the best advocates for business and the best revenue drivers!).
Conclusion
When your teams unite, you’ll see the difference in revenue, guaranteed.
Ready to create a revenue marketing strategy that turns marketing and sales into a cohesive revenue generator? Download the revenue marketing templates today!
