Image via Wikipedia
Ok, so a confession, the image is the chemical makeup of caffiene. I thought that was just too good to pass up! And I had to play with my new Zemanta plugin.
Something that shocks and quite honestly scares me is how few organizations have their Sales and Marketing teams really working well together. At Dreamforce I talked to company after company where the Marketing team has no insight to what Sales does and the Sales team has no insight to what Marketing does.
One thing we’ve accomplished since I stepped into the Marketing Specialist role at ADX is to really bring the two departments together. That’s not to say that every sales guy (or gal) here knows exactly what email campaigns or website changes we’re working on at any given moment, but we are watching each others results and communicating to see how we can make changes to get the best results in the long run.
Its certainly easier to do this in a smaller company like ours than it would be in a larger organization, but the principles are the same.
Align Your Goals from the Beginning
As a marketer, your goals may be different than the Sales team’s. In fact, your short term goals should be different than the Sales team’s goals. The important thing is to create challenging, but attainable goals together from the beginning. Decide how much pipeline you need to generate for Sales to have a chance at making their goals. Decide which mediums are most effective for reaching your potential leads and how your Sales team will learn of those leads.
Make a Schedule and Stick to It (or change it together)
Let your sales team know when you plan to run each ad, what the schedule for your email campaigns is, when the website changes will go live, and so on. Create a schedule that works for you and your Sales team, and then stick to that schedule. If you get into the schedule and things are moving too fast or too slow, then change the schedule together.
Keep Tabs on Each Other
Don’t be afraid to keep tabs on your Sales team. In fact, encourage them to do the same to you. Share reports, wins, and losses with each other and identify areas where you can help one another improve. If your Sales team tends to lose opportunities after they show a particular slide deck, rework the deck. If you get great click-through rates on your emails, but your Sales team isn’t following up with the leads, remind them that the campaign only works when they do their part.
Stop Problems Mid-Cycle
Don’t wait until the end of the quarter to address problems in your Marketing and Sales processes. Check in with each other weekly to see what’s working and what’s not. As a Marketer, you can help your Sales team understand how you are getting the word out about your brand or product, as a Sales team, they can provide you priceless feedback about how leads are responding to your efforts. But don’t wait until the end of the quarter to review, try having weekly calls or even email conversations to review progress and brainstorm new ideas together.
Sales and Marketing should work together, we’re all trying to achieve the same goal in the long run, so why not bond together and consolidate our efforts in the short term?
