Although they work towards the same goal, marketing and sales teams can find themselves in rivalry situations. Communication problems, a lack of collaboration, marketing and sales do not always get along and this causes real difficulties in the whole sales process.
What risk does this create? The company’s strategic objectives could be called into question and the teams (in marketing and sales) concerned could disengage. To maintain productivity, it is more necessary than ever to work on aligning sales and marketing, not only functionally, but also operationally. We give you the latest in this article.
The need to align marketing and sales
Convincing salespeople of the value of CRM
In 2018, the results of a survey conducted by Gartner indicated that 30% to 60% of CRM projects fail. How can such figures be explained when the effectiveness of commercial CRM and its return on investment (ROI) are no longer in doubt?
Around a quarter of salespeople are still reluctant to use CRM. This is because the software is difficult to master, tedious and non-intuitive to complete, and seems to focus on compiling information rather than companies’ sales strategy. It is therefore difficult to prove to them that CRM is a real asset, both for the company as a whole and for sales, especially for repeat business. Salespeople need business-oriented tools and cannot afford to waste hours on administrative work.
The solution to convince them to use a CRM tool is to invest in software which is fully collaborative, thereby facilitating exchanges between the different teams. But this is not enough. Employers need to communicate about the CRM tool used, in particular by offering training sessions to make it easier to use. It is also important to explain the advantages of this digital solution to sales staff:
- A centralised and easily accessible customer database
- The automation of tasks to be carried out (calls and emails etc.)
- Adequate canvassing to meet customer requirements
- A better after-sales service.
This is a considerable time-saver and achieves two key objectives:
- Customer satisfaction and loyalty
- Increased sales.
Productivity is ultimately boosted through CRM because it promotes communication between the members of the different sales and marketing teams. The marketing department works more closely with the sales team and can automate many tasks.
This timesaving allows salespeople to focus on their sales strategy and improves customer relations.
Supporting marketers and salespeople
To simplify the work of sales staff, marketers need to be given the means to attain their objectives themselves. After all, today’s sales can no longer afford to function without marketing. It is therefore essential to realign their common and respective objectives.
Marketing departments and sales departments have complementary roles. The aim of the former is to promote products in order to attract prospects and make customers happy in the long term. Sales departments have direct contact with prospects and customers. Their job is to convince customers to make a commitment and therefore steps in at the end of the purchasing process. Both departments therefore need in-depth knowledge of their customers and the market.
This means companies need to support them individually and collectively by providing them with various materials:
- CRM-type working tools
- Training for better understanding between departments
- Promoting communication between departments
- Collaborative sales pipeline and inbound marketing strategies.
CRM is also an indispensable tool for marketing. It allows marketers to analyse the flow of information from market research, improve companies’ brand image and define and refine strategies to attract new customers.
Since marketing is responsible for generating leads and sales for converting these leads into customers, both departments need to agree on the strategy to achieve the recruitment goal.
This is only possible if marketers and salespeople work together to create the ideal personas. To achieve this, marketers need to establish marketing segmentation that salespeople can use to tailor their strategy to their prospects. On the other hand, salespeople need to pass on the information gathered in the field to marketers so that they can develop effective communication campaigns.
Strengthening the common culture between marketing and sales
How can the best possible communication between marketers and salespeople be achieved? The two functions cannot work independently of each other, and a lack of communication can be fatal to sales. Indeed, unless salespeople pass on their knowledge to marketers, communication strategies will be ineffective. And conversely, if marketers do not generate leads that salespeople can convert, the objectives will never be reached. In the end, it is turnover which is jeopardised. To avoid this situation, the common culture between marketing and sales needs to be strengthened.
The company’s role will then be to ensure there is effective collaboration between marketing and sales staff. This is the whole philosophy of inbound marketing, a cross-functional approach that aligns the objectives of both sectors. By building a sales strategy based on personas, attracted by the right content published at the right time, these visitors are easily converted into leads that are then scored according to the ideal customer’s profile. The final step is to focus sales efforts on the highest value prospects.
In this way, the work is properly divided between marketers and salespeople. The competitive spirit that usually prevails between these two functions gives way to team a spirit. Everyone can express their talents and demonstrate all their skills at the right time and in the most effective way.
This is a win-win strategy. The salesperson no longer wastes time prospecting the hard way or processing low-value leads. They save themself the work of prospecting and concentrate on the final act of buying. And the marketer sees their efforts pay off.
Incorporating incentive compensation into marketing
One way to better align marketing and sales is to incorporate incentive compensation into marketing. Traditionally reserved for salespeople, this performance-based remuneration is relevant for marketers.
This way of motivating marketers through incentives can be inspired by the objectives of salespeople. In the philosophy of inbound marketing, these objectives assigned to marketers can be sales pipelines, numbers of conversions and appointments to be reached etc. In this way, the work of the marketer has, if not the same value as that of the salesperson, even more weight, particularly in companies where salespeople simply do not prospect and prioritise working on marketing leads.
Another positive consequence of incentive compensation in marketing is the sophistication of the strategy adopted. For better results, a territory management policy will naturally be established, allowing more precise and efficient segmentation of the communication campaign and a number of conversions which increase in quality and quantity. The bonuses of support functions are also given full meaning in the alignment of marketing and sales.
The importance of trusting salespeople
Don’t be too controlling
It is counterproductive to over-monitor your sales staff. They are very independent employees in a company and need to remain in control of their time management. Excessive control and individual tracking are patronising, stressful and counterproductive. You need to trust your teams and learn to delegate.
Focus on collaboration
The monitoring that can be carried out by the employer must enable them to follow the progress of activities and detect any problems encountered by an employee. Here again, CRM is a real asset because it allows discreet but necessary monitoring of the work being carried out.
Since everyone has access, outstanding leads and unfinished tasks are visible to everyone and can be quickly caught up on. The benefit of tools that promote collaboration is also that they make teams more accountable and inject enthusiasm into work as a whole.
Develop a sales pipeline strategy
Inbound marketing and sales pipeline strategies are effective in terms of strengthening corporate culture and team solidarity as well as achieving the highest possible goals.
Sales pipeline strategies suggest that the sales strategy should be designed like a funnel from prospect to sale, converting prospects into visitor to the company’s website then prompting them to request a product demonstration or an appointment with a salesperson. Several other intermediate steps can be established. According to this method, marketing and sales work efficiently in a virtuous circle: incoming enquiries through digital marketing logically turn into sales deals.
The dynamics of sales pipelines are based on communication between sales and marketing staff, who need to share as much information as they can to refine their sales strategy.
Aligning marketing and sales inevitably involves adopting a common sales strategy and developing collaborative working. If an employer can create a truly supportive and dynamic corporate culture, not only will sales be boosted, but also job satisfaction!
