Improving the notoriously rocky relationship between Sales and Marketing

Are you keen about putting the reins on the notoriously rocky relationship between your Sales and Marketing teams, and improving the communication between them? Here’s an article you’ll find very useful.

“Marketing is analytical and Sales is interpersonal. Marketing has a long-term focus, and Sales has a short-term focus. Marketing is more strategic, and Sales is more tactical. Marketing is pull, and Sales is push.” This is according to a Forbes article about the notoriously rocky relationship that exists between Sales and Marketing departments.

While these are all generalization about the two different business functions, it isn’t uncommon for Sales and Marketing – who really should be in tune – to be totally out of sync.

Sales

Sales is about romancing a customer through the various stages of the purchasing process and Marketing is focused on leads, clicks, and views. Their intentions may differ, but their goal is the same; making it vital for Sales and Marketing to work together and to always be on the same page.

Marketing

Sales and Marketing – a case of the broken telephone

Did you ever play broken telephone as a kid? You’d sit in a circle and pass a message from one person to the next by whispering into the ear of whoever was sitting next to you. By the time the message was passed around the entire circle, the final message was almost always different from the original. Now imagine trying to transfer an important piece of information to someone else without saying anything at all.

This miscommunication happens in modern businesses every day! At best, it could lead to a minor misunderstanding; at worst, it could mean that your business loses a potential customer.

Modern Marketing in a Digital Age – Let’s talk “Smarketing”

Were the Sales and Marketing departments playing broken telephone, they should definitely be sitting right beside each other, constantly passing messages back and forth so that everyone is in agreement. They basically need to join forces to form a hybrid department of sorts. Let’s call this “smarketing”.

Bridging the divide with technology

The internet and other modern technologies have made it even easier to bridge this gap. It doesn’t matter how big the company is, technology makes it simpler to collaborate and communicate; ensuring positive results are achieved with minimal effort.

Not only do digital tools allow Sales and Marketing to communicate and collaborate; marketing automation, effective CRM platforms, and customer journey mapping tools all contribute to ensuring the Sales/Marketing marriage is a successful one.

Perhaps the greatest way the digital age is aiding Sales and Marketing teams to work more closely together is around data and the insights that can be derived from customer information.

If marketers and salespeople don’t have access to the same information around the customer, they are essentially targeting different people. Being able to access historical data about customers allows a company to develop strong personas around which Sales and Marketing strategies are based.

Technology also makes it easier for content assets and sales material to be stored in a shared system that both teams can access at all times. This allows the Sales team to generate their own documents using content created by the Marketing department and ensures that all of the data in their sales pitches is accurate and up-to-date.

Together, Everyone Achieves More!

Basically, “smarketing” results in more effective content that’s easily updated and available when needed. When Sales and Marketing efforts are streamlined, solutions are put in place, which work to everyone’s benefit. Content management systems save time, while analytics make it easier to assess the success of a campaign and use this information in the future.

By Heather Thompson, Senior VP of Marketing at Qorus Software, Cape Town, South Africa.

Edited by ‘Dele Dele-Olukoju, Marketing Communication strategist and publisher of the online Marketing Communication Digest. He writes from Lagos, Nigeria.