There's always been a rivalry between the Sales and the Marketing areas; therefore, aligning their work is very difficult. There are some studies about this that reveal that only 22% of the companies all over the world work with these areas aligned.
But, why is it so difficult for these two areas to go hand in hand?
The theory is clear: both teams know they have the same common goal of increasing the sales of the company, but when we talk about working together, they go their separate ways.
What can you do to change this situation? The answer is SMARKETING.
What is it and how can it help align the areas of marketing and sales?
Smarketing is the integration of the two areas (sales and marketing) so that they work in tandem to achieve the company's goals.
Some concessions need to be made and they need to achieve these three pillars:
- Dialogue: communication between these two areas must be constant and fluid to achieve their goals. The marketing team is in charge of generating new leads and guaranteeing those leads are qualified while the sales team has to turn those leads into customers; therefore, if they don't talk to each other, achieving goals will be more difficult.
- Teamwork: to have a correct alignment of both areas, it's very important they work as if they were one. If you have regular meetings between these areas to share their ideas and do a follow-up of the process, the relationship between these areas will be strengthened and results will improve.
- Unifying: as regards the previous item, working together as a team also involves using the same tools. Having a commercial tool to be used by both areas, such as a CRM, will be very helpful for them to follow their processes up.
Advantages of using Smarketing in your company
Even though Smartketing sounds like it's a temporary trend, actually, it's not. Joining commercial management and marketing has a lot of advantages:
- Better internal communication: Smarketing fosters interaction and collaboration among teams. That's why, if these areas go hand in hand, internal communication will improve not only between them but with the company as a whole since all the other areas will do the same.
- More motivation: setting common goals is a challenge for all employees so that they work together to achieve these goals; this way, there's extra motivation and a better working environment.
- Greater coordination: these teams working together improve coordination since time management and work processes are optimized. It's also good that these areas share the same strategy to give the best possible impression of the company both internally and externally.
- More information: aligning the areas of marketing and sales involves that both areas have more information, for example, as regards the number and quality of leads, in which stage of the funnel they are, etc.
Tips to align your marketing and sales teams
If after knowing what Smarketing is about and discovering its advantages you're convinced this is what your company needs, here, we provide some tips you should take into account to implement it successfully:
- Define your buyer persona: to close sales, it's important to have a clear definition of who your target audience is, and this vision has to be shared by everyone in the company. Therefore, the marketing and sales areas need to have one definition of buyer persona so that they can focus their actions on that target to close sales more easily.
- Unify goals: if all areas have different goals, it's going to be very difficult for these areas to work together since each one will focus their efforts on achieving their own goals. Therefore, both teams need to have the same goals, and these goals have to be measurable and encouraging to achieve.
- Get the latest technology: in order to improve the productivity of both teams, it's important they have the best tools to work with, and technology will be their great ally. Having a CRM will help the marketing team get the information it needs to improve the strategies used to generate leads, while the sales team will be able to do a better follow-up of their customers and the sales made.