How Integrating Sales and Marketing Drives Growth

Sales and marketing historically haven’t worked well together and, whilst this can be very frustrating, there are a number of reasons for this. What we aim to do, and we urge you to do the same, is bridge these gaps and start a healthy dialogue between the two teams in every successful business.

The truth is that sales and marketing are both highly important, but we need them to work together to maximise efficiency, and subsequently growth.

The issues with sales and marketing collaborating

Any sales or marketing professional will tell you that there is often an ‘atmosphere’ between the two functions; a silo mentality that often blocks effective communication, relationships and, as a result, performance.

Marketers are often seen as ‘day dreamers,’ or ‘too creative,’ as though they have a lack of understanding of the real world; while salespeople are labelled as arrogant rebels with an inflated ego and the gift of the gab. 

What impact does sales and marketing teams integrating have on a business?

It has been highlighted by many that customer buying cycles are changing, with sales professionals getting involved later in the purchasing decision. According to research by Google and CEB, B2B buyers are typically 57% on the way to a buying decision before they actively engage with sales.

Rather than the lead coming over the fence from marketing at a very early stage, sales and marketing need to work together to ensure an accessible and relevant message is out there to generate customer interest. This is achieved through sales and marketing integration, each team working fluidly alongside each other to promote business and revenue growth. 

Integrating sales and marketing teams also makes it easier to make sense of customer data. Whilst increased digitalization gives the buyer more freedom to make purchasing decisions, this is accompanied by a mass of data for buyers to wade through in making decisions.

A key role for salespeople is in helping buyers to navigate the plethora of different options and build their confidence in making the right choice. Marketing, in turn, has an important role in equipping sales teams to provide that insight by providing relevant, timely material.

Ways of integrating sales and marketing to drive revenue

Here are 5 of our top ways to integrate sales and marketing, driving revenue in the process:

• Clearly define a singular purpose - Ensure that both teams have one, defined purpose. Whether that is to increase revenue, retain customers, or just to grow your organisation, both these teams need to be different arms of the same purpose, working separately, but also together.
  
  
• Outline roles, expectation, processes, and best practices - Determine the roles of each team and each individual within these teams. What do you expect from your sales team? What do you expect from your marketing team? Finally, how can they achieve this together?
  
  
• Train both teams in the other’s hard and soft skills - To help each team understand the excellent work done by the other, try to teach both sales and marketing some of the skills that the other uses. This may help to increase appreciation between the teams, as well as making your employees much more versatile!

• Invest in collaborative technology - To promote communication and working together, invest in software which facilitates collaboration and each team working together. 

• Define common success metrics for common goals - Clearly state what you want from each time. Set achievable goals which both teams need to work together to reach. This promotes collaboration and problem solving in unison.

• Utilise social media - Social media is playing an increasingly important role in business development. Companies are keen to establish social marketing as a route to market, and sales have an important role in localizing the marketing message.
  
  This is more than merely taking generating marketing collateral and pumping it out to contacts – salespeople need to communicate an authentic message that demonstrates a good understanding of specific customer issues. The support of a strong marketing team in doing this will improve the customer experience, and increase the likelihood of a sale.

How can sales training bring internal teams together?

Sales training can bring internal teams together by increasing communication and enhancing empathy between the two teams. More specifically, by introducing training programmes which teach sales some marketing skills, and marketing some sales skills, we develop more understanding of what each team does, thus more appreciation for their abilities. 

What we can also do is conduct regular performance assessments to identify opportunities for improvement within and between each team. The important thing when doing this is to involve both teams in these assessments, so both sales and marketing understands where the other is improving, and where they are thriving. They can then use this information to amend processes and methods accordingly.