Individually, sales teams and marketing teams play key roles in every organization. The two departments are hugely linked to the financial success of every business. When both are firing on all cylinders they can become unstoppable forces, boosting the customer purchase journey and maximizing revenue.
There’s a problem, though. Too often, these departments don’t communicate effectively. This leads to a lack of sales and marketing alignment, disagreements, confused strategies, and ultimately, a poor ROI.
But what’s the solution to this all too common problem? In this article, we’ll explore five strategies to align sales and marketing priorities.
Article Shortcuts:
- Define common goals and objectives
- Foster open communication
- Develop integrated campaigns
- Implement lead scoring and nurturing
- Share data and insights
Importance of Sales and Marketing Alignment
Think of sales and marketing as two important pieces in a wider jigsaw puzzle. One cannot function without the other. Sales teams need marketing teams to find leads.
Without sales, there would be no point in producing marketing materials. Unfortunately, it's not uncommon for both departments to look inward, focusing on individual priorities rather than wider business growth.
A lack of proper communication between the two departments is a likely culprit.
A recent report suggests this can result in a 40% reduction in productivity. For sales and marketing, this represents a significant problem. To pursue growth, the only solution is to align these two departments.
Alignment between sales and marketing means both departments working towards a shared set of goals. To achieve this, there needs to be constant communication, data sharing, and project collaboration. This process might seem like a lot of effort.
Look at data, though, and you’ll see clear evidence supporting this approach – aligned sales and marketing teams are 107% more likely to beat their goals than unaligned teams.
5 Strategies to Align Sales and Marketing Priorities to Amplify ROI
Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of why you should align sales and marketing departments. But what are the best strategies for succeeding with this approach? Below are some best practices that should boost your alignment success.
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Define common goals and objectives
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Without common objectives, sales and marketing teams will be placing their energy in different directions. Alignment should begin by looking at the core goals of both departments.
This is a chance to kickstart communication; rather than exchanging emails, get teams around a table and talk. If you can’t get people together face-to-face because some people work from home and some are in the office, a virtual meeting can be an equally effective way of engaging remote workers.
Aim to establish common ground for both departments by asking clear questions. For example:
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- What challenges and roadblocks do we share?
- How can we work together to achieve wider company goals?
- What steps can we take to boost communication between departments?
- What data can we exchange to further our shared goals?
After careful assessment, you should have identified some clear overlap in your goals. These objectives should form the basis of an interdepartmental relationship.
Remember, each identified goal should be specific and measurable. Having goals is no use if you can’t track your progress towards meeting them.
Finally, agree on a procedure for lead scoring. This is the process of prioritizing your leads.
When both departments follow different lead scoring criteria, it can lead to disagreements and unsatisfactory results. Alignment here revolves around a shared idea of what your ideal customer looks like. For this, you’ll need to be looking at the same information and data. We’ll talk more about this later.
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Foster open communication
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As mentioned, communication issues can be the biggest barrier to sales and marketing alignment. Instead of talking to each other and sharing ideas, departments become insular.
Rather than focusing on business goals, they focus on their priorities. If left unaddressed, this can quickly become a millstone around the neck of your organization.
Fostering a culture of open communication is a simple solution to this problem. Open communication creates an environment where everyone is encouraged to share their ideas. This shouldn’t just apply to managers but staff at all levels of seniority.
In terms of working to align sales and marketing, open communication can provide a real boost. It encourages departments to share ideas with each other.
With more diverse perspectives, you can create better strategies for working towards your common goals.
If you are unsure where to begin, why not try some of the following strategies?
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- Encourage input - Junior sales and marketing team members might be nervous about sharing ideas. It should be the role of sales and marketing leaders to reverse this stigma. Hold regular meetings with employees that focus on idea sharing.
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- Improve your communication channels - Having the right communication software is essential for open communication between departments. Opt for solutions that enable the creation of group chats for sharing files, ideas, and updates.
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- Create spaces for sharing ideas - Regardless of how much encouragement you give, some employees may still be unsure about sharing ideas publicly. That’s why it’s important to create avenues to share ideas privately. This could be white boards in the office or a private space on the cloud.
- Create spaces for sharing ideas - Regardless of how much encouragement you give, some employees may still be unsure about sharing ideas publicly. That’s why it’s important to create avenues to share ideas privately. This could be white boards in the office or a private space on the cloud.
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Develop integrated campaigns
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Marketing and sales alignment should begin by waving goodbye to separate campaigns and strategies.
These approaches are doomed to failure. You’ll be measuring different metrics and focusing on different priorities. This means when departments do communicate, there’s likely to be lots of disagreements.
An integrated approach guarantees that you’re all working towards the same marketing and sales objectives. With departments “singing from the same hymn sheet” you're more likely to achieve growth.
Integration should begin with a marketing and sales service level agreement. This lays out the obligations of both departments, and explains how they should work together. This needs to be constructed carefully so that one department doesn’t feel favored over the other.
Additionally, outline a process for transferring qualified leads between departments.
Specify a clear process for each department. Marketing efforts should focus on discovering as many new leads as possible. The sales process should prioritize convincing leads to become paying customers.
Lastly, make sure that financial information is integrated between campaigns.
Both sales and marketing should have a clear understanding of campaign budgets. They should have access to financial metrics and reports, and know as soon as any budgetary issue occurs.
Investing in top-class accounting software is a simple way of achieving this. The right solutions provide customizable reports so that departments can get the information that they need. Look for options that are highly collaborative and allow users to connect from any device.
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Implement lead scoring and nurturing
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Earlier, we talked about lead scoring, a practice that’s essential for both sales and marketing. It involves grading potential customers based on various criteria.
Ultimately, you’re looking for leads that will bring more into your business than it costs to acquire them.
Without clear procedures for tracking leads, you could end up chasing the wrong customers. This can be financially very wasteful as well as costing many other resources. To avoid these situations, sales and marketing need to agree on a criteria for finding leads.
As mentioned, to score leads you first need to understand who your customers are. This means agreeing on their demographic, personal traits, career, and other habits.
Make sure that both departments are involved in the process of building buyer personas. Most importantly, source information from accurate data collected from both departments.
With an understanding of your target audience, you can construct procedures for scoring and nurturing leads. Utilizing lead scoring software can help with this process. These tools can draw data from the buyer experience to find the best possible leads.
With a joint, collaborative approach the process of chasing leads will be much easier. By focusing on the right customers, you can boost business growth.
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Share data and insights
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Both marketing and sales teams will collect lots of data already.
Every marketing campaign brings a wealth of information. You can gain unique insights into customer interactions with marketing materials, the kinds of content they enjoy, and what switches them off.
Sales reps gather data each time they interact with a lead. This helps them to understand which tactics are more effective than others.
They also gain a strong understanding of buyer habits. They know which products customers tend to buy together, their favorite payment methods, and the kind of promotions that are effective.
With the right stock management software, they can also track the most popular products and make sure they’re always available.
Alone, these two sources of data are useful, but together they’re invaluable. Both teams can benefit from each other’s insights.
Sales teams can expand their knowledge of buyer behavior, helping them with closing deals. Marketing teams can create more personalized advertising based on previous purchase histories.
Shared data also provides a “single source of truth”, meaning that there will be no disputes over who has the correct insights or information.
Final Thoughts
Sales and marketing are two important cogs in the wider mechanism of your business. Neither can function without the other. The two departments are bound by each other’s successes or failures.
It’s strange, then, that in many businesses, these departments struggle to work together. As we’ve explored, this can quickly become a big problem for your business.
Luckily, solving the problem isn’t impossible. We’ve outlined five simple steps that can help sales and marketing see eye-to-eye. Take your time, and go through each strategy.
When you align sales and marketing, you breathe new life into your business. So, why not give it a try? We can promise that, if handled correctly, the benefits will outweigh the effort.
Author Bio
Hey, it's Mick and I'm the Growth Marketing Manager at POWR. My marketing career spans two decades, primarily in growth marketing in the healthcare space, with stints in broadcast television, advertising and copy editing.
I went to the College of Journalism at the University of Louisiana - Monroe and a storyteller at my core. My wife Elizabeth, son Gavin, and pup Jolene currently call Lafayette, Louisiana home.
Follow me on LinkedIn.
