The marketing team is feeling undervalued by sales. How can you bridge the gap and boost collaboration?

Sales is like the customer of Marketing as they depend on us for quality leads that have high conversion and maintenance of a healthy pipeline. They care less about the touches of our campaigns like mail, SEO, chat etc and more about the results we produce for them. Therefore end to end communication is imminent for a healthy relationship between marketing and sales. In a nutshell sales and marketing need to work hand in hand for the company rather than departmental KPIs. Feedback from sales can be a boon for Marketing as it gives us pointers for bridging the gaps in pur campaigns. Subsequently sales should work steadfast on the leads and provide constructive feedback, points of improvement to improve lead quality and generate bookings.

To bridge the gap between marketing & sales: Align goals: Set shared objectives emphasizing teamwork and company success. Improve communication: Schedule regular cross-team meetings to share insights & wins. Cross-functional projects: Assign tasks requiring input from both teams. Job shadowing: Allow team members to experience each other's roles. Celebrate joint successes: Recognize achievements from collaboration. Shared KPIs: Implement metrics for combined efforts. Unified customer view: Use integrated CRM for a complete customer journey picture. Leadership support that reinforces the importance of collaboration. Team-building activities that foster relationships. Feedback loops: Establish channels for constructive inter-team feedback.

Both Sales and Marketing are integral parts of the business. Marketing is for the mass reach, whereas sales is more individualistic or personalised based on customer's needs. Secondly, Marketing plays a crucial role in introducing new ideas, products, and services to the market, and most importantly, in gaining acceptance for these ideas in society. But can they progress w/o sales, the answer will remain no. They need sales to close it. so an open dialogue on how can they be more aligned will reduce the friction.

As a regional marketer, one of my main KPIs was based on pipeline goals for the quarter. Sharing goals with sales is important because it forces you to work together to see results. This doesn't eliminate the blame game but helps rally around something you can both measure success. When you're sharing goals, make sure you're also sharing reporting. Work with marketing ops to make sure you have visibility into the pipeline created and understand what source it's coming from. Listen and receive feedback from sales so you can adjust your strategy and tighten up your lead quality before the end of the quarter.

I think there is a balance to be had for marketers between strictly sticking to your strategic marketing plan and fulfilling tactical requests from sales. The latter may not align directly to your KPIs BUT if it’s a quick win and low cost e.g. can you help me build a landing page for X or a video for Y, it helps build mutual respect, appreciation and they’re more likely to action initiatives which directly impact your marketing goals.

To bridge the gap and boost collaboration between the Marketing and Sales teams, start by organizing regular meetings where both teams can share their goals, challenges, and successes. Encourage open communication and mutual respect, highlight how each team's work supports the other's success. Recognize and celebrate achievements together, show appreciation for each team's contributions and Provide opportunities for cross-training. It can result in a more cohesive and supportive work environment.

- Establish shared goals and KPIs that both teams can rally around - Implement regular cross-departmental meetings to maintain transparency and understanding - Develop integrated workflows and processes that streamline handoffs and ensure that marketing initiatives seamlessly transition to sales activities - Utilize shared CRM and marketing automation tools to enhance visibility and coordination between teams, ensuring both have access to real-time data and insights - Conduct joint planning sessions to strategize on campaigns, lead generation, and customer engagement efforts - Offer cross-functional training programs to help each team understand the other’s challenges, capabilities, and contributions, fostering empathy and collaboration

- Understand Each Other’s Goals in the team - Align on common objectives to ensure both teams are working towards the same end goals.

I always found it important to establish regular meetings (weekly/bi-weekly) with the sales director. During these meetings, we both participated in setting the agenda. We would look at lead quality with a shared report, share any upcoming events or campaign launches, and express feedback. My sales director would also invite me to attend sales meetings with AEs so I could present directly to them and hear feedback in real time.

I’ve come to understand that effective communication is crucial to success. However, this doesn’t mean inundating everyone with endless meetings. Instead, it requires ensuring that the sales and marketing teams are fully synchronized and share a mutual understanding of their customers.

Enhancing communication channels between sales and marketing is vital. Hold regular meetings and updates to keep both teams informed about ongoing campaigns and customer feedback. Use tools that facilitate seamless communication and establish a clear process for sales to provide feedback on leads generated by marketing. This open line of communication helps marketing better understand sales needs and tailor their efforts accordingly.

Communication is vital. You feel down, we can always find a solution. That is how i work. Weekly or bi-weekly meetings are nice, but why? - Faster execution and adaptability to market changes. - Stronger team morale and cohesion - Better alignment on strategy - More creativity and innovation (trough sharing new ideas)

I'm surprised communication wasn't the first on this list! Without it, both sides are operating in silos and flying blind. Regular meetings can be helpful, but also open channels for both teams to collaborate real time. Chats, Zoom meetings, and even, gasp, picking up the phone. Make it normal to ask questions and gain clarity. Partnerships between members of the sales team and marketing where they talk regularly. What's happening on the marketing side? What does that person want to see from sales? And, vice versa. And switch it up. Don't keep the same partners. This allows so much opportunity for both sides to learn from each other makes for well rounded teams.

Multi-touch attribution can help successful marketing teams collaborate with sales to show that their campaigns of touches with contacts have led to more success than contacts that have not been marketed to. Rather than try to prove "better than", prove "better together"

- Celebrate wins together to highlight the value of marketing. - Host a monthly meeting to share marketing campaign successes and how they have contributed to sales. - Use tools like PowerPoint to create engaging presentations that showcase metrics and achievements.

Sharing marketing wins with the sales team has been a total game-changer for us. It shows just how connected our goals are, and makes every success a team effort. When sales sees the direct impact of our marketing campaigns - like how they actually lead to deals - it builds a ton of appreciation and respect for what marketing does.

Il est vrai que le marketing accompagne la vente, car les branding , affiches pub , billboard et autres campagnes passées sur les médias stimulent forcément la vente. C’est pour dire le succès de l’équipe de vente est à contre partie la réussite de l’équipe marketing. Lorsque l’équipe marketing fait un bon travail sur terrain, les ventes vont suivre. Je donne un example typique : un client part au marché pour acheter une télé, sans avoir l’idée de la marque qu’il peut acheter, arrivé au marché il voit l’image d’une marque affichée un peu partout, pour le client l’image lui donne déjà une idée sur la marque qu’il peut acheter . Pour conclure, sans le marketing, l’équipe de la vente doit travailler très dur pour donner des bons résultats.

- Offer cross-training sessions to build mutual understanding. - Organize workshops where marketing and sales teams can learn about each other’s processes and challenges. - Use Zoom or Google Meet to facilitate virtual training sessions.

Based on my experience, to avoid this each department should focus on the common goal with clear responsibility and scope of work. However, supporting each other in some tasks should also be included as normally the project can be changed out of expectation and need some adjustment from each department.

Training to justify and hoping that others will see the value is a rather difficult task. One crucial misunderstanding is the old concept: sales earns money and marketing only costs money. In my view it‘s more about showing what marketing can do for the company. What value it can add to the overall business numbers. E.g., a high brand equity supports sales, helps to hold and expand market shares etc. Marketing is more than just executing campaigns.

One of the best tips I have for you, for doing this is to establish regular cross-departmental meetings where both teams can share insights, successes, and challenges. This helps build understanding and appreciation for each other's roles.

- Create opportunities for joint projects and communication. - Use collaboration tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams to create shared channels for marketing and sales to discuss strategies and feedback in real-time.

I found creating a commercial calendar that includes brand and marketing specific campaigns and activities with client in one document a real helper. This way both departments understand each others and align on shared goals. We have had workshops involving senior management from both departments to moderate this process.

Organizationally there should be a constant conversation between the two exchanging ideas and developing current and future campaigns to increase growth and stability in their market presence. Unfortunately, Sales and Marketing are often siloed from each other. This is not done by design necessarily but can happen when a more traditional style of leadership or changing of leadership occurs. The two must work in tandem to achieve the goals that have been set. There has to be communication to understand expectations. When this occurs departments can see KPIs met and organizational growth. Marketing can not exist without products and Sales can not exist without consumers. Understanding and cross-collaboration is key.

Joint meetings with marketing and sales to create practice pitches for real clients on a regular basis - monthly or quarterly. Sales teams can through possible barriers and objections for a prospect together. I found the AEs on the team had different perspectives or solutions to help. The marketing team has a better understanding of what it’s like “on the ground” as the market is dynamic and needs change. The marketing team can offer feedback or assistance to a pitch deck (or mock-up of what you are selling, if applicable). It can help them come up with new materials and other communications for clients moving forward.

- Implement feedback loops to continuously improve collaboration. - Regularly survey both teams to gather feedback on what’s working and where there are opportunities for better alignment. - Tools like SurveyMonkey can help collect and analyze this feedback.

Every company must have its own main goal or vision & mission. However, not all companies can achieve the GOALS & PLANS as they wish. The failure they experienced may have occurred because they did not implement the company's FRAMEWORK / work program properly. A good work program can allow you to plan the PROCESS steps that need to be taken in order to ACHIEVE your company's GOALS more EFFECTIVELY. This discusses what a company work program is & the types of work programs in the company.

-Tener reuniones donde logren una retroalimentación de ambos departamentos para lograr un punto medio, y así podamos trabajar con el mismo objetivo y la misma línea. Pienso que lo ideal es que ambos departamentos trabajen juntos, en la misma oficina, mismo piso, y así lograr realmente una comunicación efectiva en el día a día, que los departamentos entiendan las funciones del otro y así saber como pueden apoyarse

To bridge the gap and boost collaboration between marketing and sales, additional steps we should consider: - Cross-Functional Training: Foster mutual understanding through training. - Continuous Feedback Loop: Implement regular check-ins and feedback mechanisms. - Collaborative Content Creation: Involve sales in marketing material development. - Leadership Support: Ensure top management promotes collaboration. - Shared Vision: Promote teamwork and a unified vision. - Customer Journey Mapping: Understand and collaborate on customer touchpoints. - Integrated Campaigns: Plan campaigns with input from both teams. - Regular Data Sharing: Share insights and metrics regularly. - Success Stories: Share successful outcomes of collaboration.