Often, sales and marketing teams have different goals and agendas. This is especially the case in a remote environment, where it can be more challenging to get these teams on the same page. However, you can do a few things to make sure your marketing and sales teams are synced and working towards the same goal: driving sales and increasing revenue. Remote work is becoming more popular, so both teams need to take on these new changes with vigor and a drive to be more connected as a team despite the distance.
Marketing and sales teams must stay coordinated with each other’s projects and tasks as they progress towards the same goal in different ways. Marketing teams may develop campaigns and strategies that the sales team might not know about, leading to miscommunications and missed opportunities. This blog post will provide steps to get your marketing and sales teams on the same page in a remote setting.
Why Align Marketing and Sales?
It may seem like a tedious process to get two different teams on the same page, but having effective marketing and sales alignment can resolve several reoccurring problems that will make your processes run a lot smoother.
Common points of friction include:
- Poor customer data: Company customer data often becomes a disorganized mess in each department too often. Having good alignment will allow the teams to organize their data so it’s presented productively.
- Under-utilizing sales content: So much of the content that marketing teams produce doesn't get used by the sales team. This happens because marketing teams create content without consulting sales teams, and sales teams don’t use that content because it doesn’t fulfill their needs. Properly aligning sales and marketing means that marketing will have the tools and the knowledge to create top-notch content that will address the sales team’s needs.
- Clunky lead hand-offs: Sales need to act quickly after marketing generates new leads at an event. There should be a system in place for this. That way, both teams are responsible for lead retention, and none of them become missed opportunities.
- Difficulty demonstrating ROI: Marketing can’t prove which assets impact closed deals. That’s why sales teams need to make their activity available so the company can understand where investment is required.
The main point is that your sales and marketing teams need to have an effective communication system. In remote settings, it’s easy to get wrapped up in your day-to-day tasks and not consider the strategies that could help your team see more success. Too often, something in either team’s wheelhouse falls to the wayside. So how can you overcome this? The answer is having a dynamic sales enablement platform that both your sales and marketing teams use.
How to Align Marketing and Sales
If you have a dynamic sales enablement platform or system, your sales and marketing teams will be better equipped to overcome common hurdles. If you don’t already have a sales enablement platform for your sales and marketing teams, get one. Once you have a system set in place, you can follow the following six steps to help your teams succeed in a remote setting.
1. Direct your focus on your customer
Of course, this should be your primary focus in any situation. It’s also the most important commonality between marketing and sales. If each team makes it their goal to serve the customer through the whole sales process, they should be naturally motivated to align. Serving happier customers should be the driving force that incentivizes marketing and sales alignment.
2. Define your marketing and sales funnels
If you have a defined, step-by-step process that shows what each team member should do in the lead generation process, it’s much easier to measure success. For example, marketing is usually found at the top of the funnel by building brand awareness and generating leads, while sales execute marketing plans and cultivate leads. However, having a defined funnel system unique to your company’s needs can help each team find ways to collaborate and ensure everyone stays accountable.
3. Share sales feedback with marketing
To strengthen the funnel structure, sales teams should inform marketing teams where their assets succeed. This is best done on a sales enablement platform equipped with analytics to show customer engagement on assets shared by sales members. This knowledge-sharing mechanism can help the marketing team create more assets that customers are interested in and better engage them.
4. Communicate frequently
Simply increasing your communication isn’t enough--it should be efficiently planned out and structured. This ensures that each team member can share valuable information and make productive connections. To fulfill this step, create a communication plan, stick to it, and devote time to creating actionable items that involve each team.
5. Integrate sales and marketing metrics
Marketing and sales teams should have shared KPIs that each member can access. They should reflect performance from both teams along with individual achievements. Having shared metrics pushes the teams to take equal ownership in meeting revenue goals and improving processes. When sales and marketing teams see how the other performs, they will understand how to provide quality leads, improve the lead hand-off process, and align content more closely with customer needs.
6. Control your content management system
Marketing efforts are wasted on sloppy content management systems. Members of both sales and marketing teams should have quick and easy access to the content they need to succeed. Utilizing your sales enablement platform to keep your content organized and accessible can be a valuable investment for the future of your marketing and sales teams.
While it may seem like a daunting task, taking the time to align your sales and marketing efforts will pay off in the long run. Using a sales enablement platform can simplify the alignment process and ensure both teams are working towards the same goals. It’s not uncommon for marketing and sales silos to occur, especially when the company is remote. Utilizing sales enablement platforms to align sales and marketing can increase revenue with decreased costs.
If you’re interested in learning more about how verbTEAMS can help your business cultivate stronger relationships with your customers, click here to schedule a demo. See how our interactive technology can help you engage with your customers!
