What Is the Importance of Sales and Marketing Alignment?

The importance of sales and marketing alignment is profound for businesses of all types. We’ll tell you why… 

Sales. Marketing.

Although these two departments are on the same team, they’re not always the best of friends.

But they should be.

According to HubSpot, one in four sales reps indicated that improving sales and marketing alignment would result in the most growth for their company.

That’s a lot of potential not being capitalised on.

Sure, there’s been a longstanding rivalry between the two groups in organisations across the world, but it makes no sense.

Both teams should be working towards the same goals.

And both sides need the other to ultimately achieve success.

When sales and marketing alignment is in full flight, the dynamic duo can decrease costs, increase metrics, and create concise lifecycles to better support your clients’ needs. And all that drives more revenue.

But how exactly can you get these two departments to go from rivals to besties?

Here are four top tips…

 

1. Get Them on the Same Page

Although marketing teams are in charge of creating compelling and original content for your target audience, by working with the sales team they can heighten the relevancy of those comms.

Because your sales team is frequently communicating with customers, marketers can leverage those insights to develop more relevant and timely content.

Say, you’re an online retailer. Your sales team discovers that a major pain point for your customers is determining their size, or how to exchange items.

With this information at hand, your marketing department can whip up helpful blog posts. For example, ‘5 Quick Ways to Determine Your Shoe Size’ or ‘How You Can Exchange Your Purchase With Just One Click’.

 

2. Share Information to Personalise Emails

Once your marketing and sales departments realise the rewards of working together, you’ll be well on your way to smashing those targets.

If you want to deliver an out-of-this-world customer experience, it’s time to really know your customers. We’re talking demographics, behaviours, hobbies, and the challenges they face. You will also need to talk to them on their terms to fully understand where they’re coming from.

Thankfully, we live in this wonderful age of connected tech where we have all of this data within easy reach. Now, it’s in the hands of your marketing team.

Marketing studies your target audience. Then, they create relevant content for every stage of the sales process.

Now, your sales team has the opportunity to dive deeper and interact with the customers one-on-one – guiding them through the journey.

Doing so allows sales to personalise the entire customer experience, specifically emails. Instead of sending the same email to your entire audience, you can send the right message to the right person at the right time.

This workflow has the ability to strengthen the relationship between you and your customers, and increase conversions.

 

3. Systematise Lead Scoring

It’s necessary for marketing and sales to have an ongoing conversation regarding lead conversion: What’s working, what’s not, and why it’s either working or not.

The reason is that creating and converting MQLs to SQLs is a constantly evolving target. Both teams need to have one system in place for scoring and evaluating leads in order to understand their potential and how you’re going to engage them in a timely and relevant manner.

This is where developing buyer personas comes in.

Your sales team is on the frontline of the organisation and can tell you who the people buying or consuming your products are. Marketing understands your industry and who should be targeted. Together, they can create the best buyer personas using market research and actual customer insights.

Your sales team can provide insights and generalisations about the leads they’ve been interacting with. And your marketing team can conduct research that can inform more broader insights. Ultimately, both teams are then focused on engaging the same prospects.

Together, both sales and marketing have the power to develop comprehensive buyer personas, so they can effectively target your ideal customer, increase acquisition, and generate targeted ads and pitches.

 

4. Establish and Maintain Culture

Your strategy isn’t as effective when sales and marketing alignment isn’t happening.

Here’s an example. A customer reads an eDM or social post that is light-hearted and a bit quirky. This is the first time they’re encountering your brand.

A couple of days later, they receive a sales call that carries a drastically different tone and personality – this person was serious and a bit pushy.

Not only is the customer confused, but they’re put off and less likely to move further down the sales funnel.

In other words, when sales and marketing aren’t on the same page, it creates a divided office and fragmented brand image.

In order to encourage collaboration and camaraderie among these two teams, schedule regular meetings, create standard processes, and agree on mutually beneficial goals.

Clearly, when sales and marketing alignment is at its strongest, it creates the best chance for success.

And that means success for the entire business.

 

Support with Sales and Marketing Alignment

Need help with sales and marketing alignment within your organisation? We can help.

At Hunt & Hawk, we’re experts in marketing, sales, and branding with assistance tailored to your business’ needs.

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