Marketing and sales are equally responsible for a company’s revenue, yet many still make the mistake of treating these two areas as separate departments, or even enemies.
The lack of integration and the conflicts generated between the two have already proven to be too detrimental to organizational health, and it is for this reason that, in recent years, companies have been investing in different actions so that both speak the same language and work in tune.
After all, marketing and sales objectives are the same, and when aligned they can generate excellent results for companies. As the saying goes: one hand washes the other, and both wash the face, right? 🙂
In the post we share today, we will talk more about this integration. Join us!
Why align marketing and sales objectives?
While marketing works on broader strategies like brand building, prospecting, and lead generation, sales focus much of their efforts on conversion.
Thus, the two areas develop their activities based on different perspectives, but at the end of the day the purpose is usually the same: to increase the income of a company. Hence the need to align your goals.
In practice, the marketing team stops the sales team from closing the deal, which makes the two directly dependent on each other for the realization of their goals.
Therefore, marketing and sales are not exclusive, nor are they disintegrated and individual areas. They are departments that travel different paths, but that aim to reach the same destination. And not only that, but they fundamentally complement each other in achieving their goals.
This recognition by companies has led to the emergence of a technique for aligning the two areas, also known as smarketing.
What losses are there when they are not integrated?
The disunity of marketing and sales can result in reduced profits and, in extreme cases, the bankruptcy of a business. There is nothing worse for a company than departments managing individual actions, once misinformation and lack of dialogue compromises the bottom line — revenue.
Lack of integration can lead to marketing and sales applying basic definitions, terms, and processes each in their own way.
Imagine if for each of these questions, the two departments had different answers:
- What defines a qualified lead?
- Who is the business?
- How is the customer’s shopping journey?
You see the confusion this can cause, right?
Therefore, when it comes to generating business, it becomes essential that the two departments involved work based on the same principles and concepts, thus avoiding the failure of their actions.
Another factor caused by the disintegration is the rivalry and competition fueled by the separation of both departments. In many cases we see sales teams referring to marketing as the team whose only role is to create social media posts and banners, while marketing sees the sales team as unfit and disorganized.
This type of vision causes conflicts and discomfort at the organizational level, compromising the quality of work and consequently the income generated.
What successful practices can be applied?
You have understood the importance of aligning the marketing and sales teams, but surely the question has arisen: how to make this real and palpable?
There are a series of practices that minimize conflicts between the two departments and make both invest their efforts together in what is really relevant: closing more deals.
Here we share some of them, join us:
SLA
The term SLA stands for Service Level Agreement, which can be translated as Service Level Agreement. It is a contract between one or more areas that establishes in writing responsibilities, deadlines, metrics and goals that will be shared among all the collaborators involved in the process.
In marketing and sales, the SLA serves to detail the objectives and results that will be delivered, as well as the actions that both departments will carry out to support their work.
With the help of this document, each area knows exactly what to do and what expectations to have of the others.
Well-defined metrics and goals
In order to align marketing and sales goals, it is very important to define common goals and metrics. This means setting goals and metrics that are realistic and make sense to both teams, considering the impact each has on them.
For it to work, communication between the two areas must be dynamic and frequent. In this way, it will be easier to understand the challenges faced by each one and how they can collaborate with each other, with complementary and positive goals, to achieve the expected results.
The definition of metrics also requires a regular dialogue, with meetings and reports that cover the exchange of collected data, relevant numbers for both areas, such as leads generated, conversions made, cancellations and everything else that is relevant for the development of strategies and actions. .
Lead Qualification
Much of the marketing effort is oriented to deep knowledge of the target audience. In the end, one of your main goals is to attract the largest number of potential customers. This knowledge allows specific actions to engage this profile of people.
Marketing works on the relationship and nurturing of leads until they are mature and ready to buy. Then the sales team kicks in, subsequently walking them down the sales funnel.
For this process to work, there must be assertive communication and monitoring of the marketing and sales processes, making it essential that these two areas are linked, exchanging information and determining together what defines a lead as qualified and how it can be further optimized. qualification to ensure sales success.
At this point, it is worth highlighting the use of tools such as (customer management software) that allows all customer information to be centralized in one place in an organized and accessible way for both teams.
Content generation
Those produced by the marketing team are responsible for the organic attraction of potential customers. Thus, the creation of this material depends on the analysis of different factors, such as the identification of consumer needs, habits, problems and objections.
Many times the way to identify these characteristics is by communicating directly with the customer, and who does this better than the sales team?
Sales can collaborate in the production of content by providing the information acquired during communication with consumers. They can even collect feedback on the content already produced and that led to the conversion of the lead.
This type of information can yield valuable insights for the marketing team, which of course results in more business opportunities for sales.
conclusion
As you have seen in this post, aligning marketing and sales objectives has a great weight in the ROI of companies. Only the union of the departments can guarantee success, since both strictly depend on each other to achieve their goals.
Marketing and sales are not rival areas, but complementary. For that reason, it is necessary to deconstruct the antagonism and educate them to recognize the value of each other and the difference they can make by working together.
Communication is the great secret of this process. Exchanging information and defining responsibilities with the help of the SLA, sharing clear, objective and transparent goals and metrics, jointly developing lead qualification and content generation, are some ways to strengthen the union of these departments.
Dialogue and collaboration are key pieces to make the relationship between marketing and sales healthy and successful.
I hope you have understood a little better how to align marketing and sales objectives. Now let’s get to work! Don’t forget to come back here and tell us how the initiative to put these tips into action has gone. Until next time!
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