Sales and Marketing are integral to every organization, irrespective of their size, domain and location. Ideally, these functions are an extension to each other and quite inseparable. However, in the real world scenario, these two teams are disjointed and often at odds with each other. The Top Management across companies and industries have been encouraging collaboration of Sales and Marketing teams for accelerated organizational growth.

Sales in the B2B space was primarily focused on closing deals, new account wins, upsell and retention. On the other hand, marketing was focused on brand awareness and positioning.

But this is 2018 and Marketing has transformed radically in the past few years. This is the era of Digital Marketing, where data and insights rule the roost. Marketers are using Social Media Marketing and SEO to create awareness and encourage engagement with the target audience. They are passing on real-time and actionable intelligence to the sales team. The sales team can use these insights to develop custom solutions for the prospects.

We believe that data, insights and open communication channels are imperative to align the disparate efforts of the sales and marketing teams.

The Perfect Alignment

Here are a few ways to achieve optimal alignment between the Sales and Marketing team.

• Synchronize Goals – The two teams should communicate their individual goals with each other. While the sales would be obsessed with the dollar figures, marketing would be interested in the number of successful campaigns. The teams can devise a plan that will help them achieve their individual goals as well as accomplish higher revenues for the organization.

• Track and Measure – The Sales team often perceives Marketing as a cost center as it is difficult to measure their deliverables in numbers. As a result, the sales team is dejected about the value the Marketing team brings in to the organization. Marketing Automation tools and technologies can help the marketing team to track views, clicks and downloads for their digital marketing initiatives. Moreover, the tools also record these activities in the CRM system for future use, insights and analysis.

• Encourage Communication – Marketing teams are primarily concerned with their campaign effectiveness, content marketing, brand awareness and engagement. On the other hand, Sales is concerned about the account management and converting leads.

We believe that the two teams should collaborate and work as a seamless extension to each other’s team. This can happen by creating opportunities such as cross-training, or cross-functional teams for short-term projects like product launches or other go-to-market initiatives.

We would also recommend to integrate your Marketing Automation system with your CRM system for easy access to the sales and marketing data.

• Create a Joint Plan – A marketing and sales plan, when conceived by both the teams together have all the stakeholders ensuring its success. A joint plan should outline the goals, tasks and deliverables for all to see and achieve.

Following these steps will lead you to an organization with an aligned sales and marketing team.