The Importance of Aligning Sales and Marketing Teams
In any business, the sales and marketing teams are the driving force behind growth and success. However, all too often, these teams operate in silos, with little communication or collaboration between them. This can result in missed opportunities, lost revenue, and a general lack of efficiency.
But what if sales and marketing teams worked in harmony?
What would that look like, and how can it be achieved? In this post, we’ll explore the benefits of aligning sales and marketing teams with one another under the broader company vision. We will also provide some tips on achieving this alignment within your company so you can finally begin to scale efficiently and sustainably.
Benefits of Aligning Sales and Marketing Teams
“When Sales and Marketing work well together, companies see substantial improvement on important performance metrics: Sales cycles are shorter, market-entry costs go down, and the cost of sales is lower.” Harvard Business ReviewPhilip Kotler 2006
1. Shorter Sales Cycles:
The sales cycle will become more streamlined when sales and marketing teams are aligned. Marketing teams can provide sales teams with high-quality leads, and sales can provide marketing with feedback on what content resonates with prospects, and marketing can help keep leads engaged if they aren’t ready to make a purchase yet. This collaboration then leads to a more efficient sales process and shorter sales cycles.
2. Lower Costs:
When sales and marketing teams work together, they can reduce market-entry costs and the cost of sales. This is because marketing can provide sales with the most targeted, relevant content and messaging for qualifying leads, which helps to close deals faster and more efficiently.
3. Improved Performance and Job Satisfaction:
When teams are united under the umbrella of common goals, included in important goal setting and reviews, and encouraged to collaborate, we see a significant uptick in both productivity and job satisfaction. People are happier and more effective in their positions and willing to participate when they are connected to the whole process and the company’s bigger picture.
Understanding Common Breakdowns Under the Current ‘Separate Team’ Model:
The separate team model encourages each department to stay in their lane, focusing only on their unique processes and outputs. This ultimately leads to disjunction, lost sales, breakdowns between departments, and competition or blaming between teams.
Common pitfalls you might experience under this traditional team structure:
A lack of a clear internal brand image, making it difficult to communicate externally.
Confusion as the company isn’t united or encouraged to work collaboratively, leading to each team being on a different page.
Unmotivated employees: How can we motivate them to move towards progress when they don’t know where the target is, who is supposed to be leading the effort, how their role fits into the process, or how to get there?
Blame games ensue: i.e., the marketing team gets frustrated with sales for failing to follow through with qualified leads. The sales team gets frustrated with marketing for not understanding the pressure they’re under… and the list continues.
7 Tips to Help Align Your Sales and Marketing Teams
1. Foster Communication:
Lack of communication is often a significant barrier to alignment. Ensure that your sales and marketing teams communicate regularly and on the same page about goals, initiatives, wins, and losses. Establish a clear line of communication for each team to contact the other and encourage constructive ways to air grievances and frustrations. Perhaps most importantly, empower management to lead by example, not placing one department’s importance over another’s and working collaboratively.
2. Avoid Overburden:
Overburdening teams can stifle innovation and lead to reactionary responses. Ensure that your teams are not trying to do too many functions and have a clear focus. Make sure to provide enough resources and reporting to know when to justify adding more.
3. Balance Function and Priority:
Ensure that all teams are working towards the same overarching strategy and not getting lost in the weeds. Teams left to their own devises often end up off-brand and off-message, leading to internal confusion and a confusing front to customers.
4. Provide Support, Accountability, and Understanding:
Participation should be mandatory and enforced, and the company’s chosen direction should be communicated and addressed internally. Proactive efforts should be appreciated during the “good times” and actively sought after during slow periods.
5. Define a Clear Mission, Vision, and Strategy:
Ensure that your teams have a shared understanding of the company’s goals and how they align with their roles and responsibilities. Teams should work together to plot out the entire customer journey, including the pre-buying journey.
6. Remove Department Roadblocks:
One department’s failure can derail another’s success. Ensure that all teams work together towards a common goal, not dictating tasks, priorities, and participation.
7. Encourage the Right Mindset:
Ensure that all team members understand the importance of collaboration and how it benefits the company. Try to avoid egos and the mindset that one team is more critical than another.
Essential to Your Growth: Integrating Creative Solutions Today.
If you’re struggling to foster collaboration among your teams but are actively working to scale your company, it may be time to take a new approach. Overhauling your company structure can be a daunting and overwhelming task. The good news is, you don’t have to do it alone. At Desert Creative Group, we offer hands-on consulting by a diverse range of business consultants, reaching your business at the most foundational level to help integrate lasting change and creative solutions that can only be imagined from the wide angle, birds-eye-view of an onlooking team of experts. Click here to learn more about how we can work together to optimize your business.
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The separate team model encourages each department to stay in their lane, focusing only on their unique processes and outputs. This ultimately leads to disjunction, lost sales, breakdowns between departments, and competition or blaming between teams.
