A Blueprint For Building A Dream Relationship Between Sales And Marketing
- Published in Demanding Views
By Brian Kelly, CMO, InsideView
Marketing and sales departments in most companies are not working cohesively. This disconnect creates a less-than-effective strategy to develop long-lasting relationships with leads. Marketers traditionally gather minimal information about leads, which they then transfer to sales professionals who attempt to make a connection. This process is generally inefficient and ineffective.
The gap between the two departments must be closed, especially with marketing becoming a revenue- driven role in many organizations. As technology has evolved over time, the tactics and tools at their disposal provide more useful support and insights. Sales and marketing teams need to rely on each other more than ever to reach and significantly impact close rates.
How Do They Come Together?
It all starts with the marketing program, it must work well with the sales process. Here are a few techniques that marketers and sales professionals can establish to create a better, revenue driven relationship:
Align their goals. Marketing can no longer be measured on leads alone, it must be about revenue. It doesn’t really matter if marketing generates a million leads, if they aren’t converting. Sales has always been very measurable and focused on revenue. Marketing, however hasn’t been quite as measurable or revenue aligned, which results in “throwing over the wall” and finger pointing. Once both are aligned on the revenue goals, they work together towards the same end, are in sync with process, metrics and measures along the way to the win.
Align to the buyer. It is critical to align sales and marketing to the buyer’s buying process. It is no longer controlled by sales, it is controlled by the buyer. You must market and engage with the buyer according to their process and timeframe. This aligns marketing campaigns with the sales process — with the buyer’s journey. Marketing must provide the content and campaigns the go from interest through close-win. With sales in-step and engaged with the prospect all along the way. This requires intelligence about the buyer to identify their interest and buying signals.
Have a cohesive data source. Customer data must be complete and dynamic in order for marketers and sales to be align throughout the lead-to-revenue cycle. A key to this alignment is the flow to lead information from marketing to sales. The lead should hit sales in a complete (not just contact information) form filled with news and social buzz regarding the target. The master customer and contact data should come from a single source, needs to be highly accurate and needs to include insights and connections for true sales-ready leads.
What’s Next?
Putting in place the right tactics for alignment will reap the benefits. In fact, according to a study by CSO Insights, 89% of companies that create open communication between sales and marketing lead generation efforts reported an increase in leads that eventually turned into opportunities. Through conversation, better alignment of each other’s goals and a single data source with relevant information, sales professionals and marketers can look forward to long-lasting relationships and an increase in businesses bottom line. In the end sales departments love marketing departments for killer leads and marketing loves sales because they convert leads-to-revenue.
Brian Kelly is Chief Marketing Officer of InsideView and responsible for the company's overall marketing strategy, product marketing and management, and marketing communications. Brian brings an extensive career in enterprise software marketing for both CRM and big-data analytic solutions.