How we stopped the War between Sales and Marketing

Introduction

Our Sales and Marketing Teams were in conflict. And this won’t come as a surprise to you if you have ever worked in an organization that has designated sales and marketing departments.

Both teams were working efficiently. But they would often undervalue each other’s contribution to the growth of the company. We could sense a storm brewing.

But we successfully paved our way out.

Our secret?

Implementing Smarketing!

And in this Review, we are going to show you exactly how we did it, step-by-step.

Answering the Big Question: What’s More Important?

The marketing team is responsible for sifting through the vast market space and generating leads for the business. The sales team then swoops in to close the deal and convert those leads to paying clients. In our organization, the two teams had been working efficiently but independently of each other.

It became apparent in team meetings that each team saw its own role as the more important one for the growth of the company. Since the Sales team finally converted leads to clients, they overlooked the role of marketing in their success. The marketing team, on the other hand, would often view the salespeople as short-sighted and too focused on the client.

In our bid to finally settle once and for all that “What’s more important?” we discovered the answer. The most important thing was SMARKETING!

How “Smarketing” Transforms the Marketing-Sales Relationship

Smarketing is simple.

Smarketing is the approach where the sales and marketing efforts are seamlessly streamlined. The two wings of the organization are not just connected but integrated with each other. So, instead of fighting for the top spot, marketing and sales come together to nurture and take a potential customer on its journey- from Awareness to Conversion.

Picture a flowing river. You will not be able to identify one distinct segment of water from another. Notice, how each wave seamlessly flows into the other. That’s exactly how marketing flows into sales. They are a part of the same river- integrated as one.

Step-by-Step Process:

Here’s a step-by-step guide of how we achieved these results.

Step 1: Integrate the customer journey

We reimagined the lead funnel of the company. We created a single aligned funnel-with Marketing at the top and Sales at the bottom. Marketing is now at the wider end of the funnel, and it helps lead people into the funnel. The funnel then seamlessly integrates into the sales funnel with the MQLs turning into SQLs and eventually, converting into clients.

Additionally, by making better qualification criteria for the leads at the level of marketing itself, we were able to ensure that the leads flowing further down the funnel are better qualified.

This has not only helped lighten the load on the sales team but also increased the lead quality substantially.

Step 2: Leading with Marketing

The majority of our efforts in marketing are now to prep interested people for the sales team. Now that we have an integrated funnel, we are easily able to make the transition from marketing to sales i.e., from awareness right down to finalizing the sale. Marketing does the job of warming up the leads while also nudging them in the right direction. This makes the work of the sales team easier. The sales team is able to work more effectively and efficiently.

Step 3: Using marketing content to close the deal

Content is king. It is the most effective way to convey your vision and value to the world. Therefore, we have now started leveraging relevant content to aid the sales team in converting clients. Closing a client can be tough as leads have multiple inhibitions and insecurities that need to be addressed. Relevant content presented at the right time can help the lead visualize how our services can be of help to them, what the road further looks like and how exactly the services address the inhibitions of the lead.

For instance, a software company could create content related to project management to show how well the projects will be handled to ensure deadlines are met.

Step 4: Using the Sales Team to step into the customer’s shoes

Your service is only as successful as it is useful to the customers. Since the sales team is in direct touch with the customers, they are best placed to be able to understand their pain points, expectations and overall feedback.

To stay on top of our customers’ needs, we listen to them. And listen well. The marketing team sits each week with the sales team to gather inputs from their interactions with customers as well as potential customers.

We then run a feedback loop to make necessary changes in our marketing efforts, incorporating the inputs to get more efficient and focused results. Feedback-Analyze-Learn. And we continue to run the feedback loop over and over again.

Final Words

So, that’s Smarketing: our strategy to end the war between Sales and Marketing.

Now we’d like to hear from you. Have you tried bridging the gap between marketing and sales before?

If so, how did it go?

Let us know in the comments section below.