Let’s be honest there are several reasons why you should have collaboration between sales and marketing! Not only will it increase lead generation, but it will also lead to more conversions and better sales. Open lines of communication between sales and marketing are critical and will help facilitate this important partnership.
Common Core Communication
While both sales and marketing may have the same goal, it is not uncommon for the two to sometimes work independently. It is not usually a deliberate decision, it just something that sort of happens for various reasons. Lack of coordination most commonly hinders communication, particularly around contact and follow-up, nurturing, and determining buyer readiness. Nevertheless, to get the most out of your efforts, collaboration is essential to giving your customers the best possible experience, which is the common goal.
But isn’t getting more leads the goal? Well, yes, but to do that, sales and marketing must be on the same page when it comes to creating a consistent, pleasant experience for prospects. Automation can offer significant communication assistance by keeping sales, marketing, and prospective customers in the same loop. Get more automation tips here.
Timing Is Everything
One of the quickest ways to turn off prospective buyers is by hitting too hard with the sales pitch too early on. Unfortunately, this is more likely to happen with a lack of collaboration. Remember, before you pitch leads you must nurture and build a rapport with them—you are trying to impress them with content and consistent service, not irritate them. Through open communication, both teams will know when a lead can be turned over to the sales pros or if one requires additional nurturing.
In an article on sales and marketing collaboration, Target Marketing magazine reiterated that you should think like the client, “The lead generation process must be attuned to their preferences. From the customers' perspective, even if they have to deal with two separate groups of people, it should feel like one continuous process.”
Develop and Define
We know that collaboration is not always easy—there may be a few bumps in the road before it is smooth driving—but, in the end, everyone wants increased sales. Developing common criteria, defining roles and responsibilities, and meeting periodically (in-person or virtually) will help everyone. It is mutually beneficial to have specific practices in place so that sales and marketing can work together as a team towards the end goal. It is also helpful to cross-pollinate—have marketing data geeks listen in on a few sales call and be sure to share and explain analytics to your sales people. The better you understand one another, the better you will work cohesively.
There are many important facets of sales and marketing collaboration, but having open lines of communication and mutual respect are the first two hurdles to overcome to get things headed in the right direction.
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