Improve the Bottom Line by Reducing Friction Between Your Sales and Marketing Teams

A colleague of mine recently shared a story that reflects a scenario I’ve encountered while working in corporate America and with clients at Gray Matter Marketing.

My colleague was supporting a new company that for the first time was investing in marketing. This was a company with brilliant people and a great product, in an industry with outstanding growth potential. The company had been relatively successful with no marketing at all, so she was excited about how much more it could accomplish with a solid marketing strategy.

However, her excitement fizzled-out after a few conversations with various people across the organization; it didn’t take long to realize that she was facing some serious pushback, specifically from the sales team, and even from management. It turned out that the sales team saw the newly formed marketing team as competition, rather than what it was supposed to be: a resource and tool for expanding sales and increasing engagement with their customers.

The pushback came from tight-lipped salespeople who wouldn’t share their sales pitches or approaches, from an intense scrutiny over marketing copy, and from a complete lack of direction or feedback on what was and wasn’t working. Most of all, it came in the form of zero action. After several months, nothing had moved forward with the marketing and branding strategy.

While this is an extreme example, friction between the two departments is common. I’ve seen disconnected sales and marketing teams first-hand and witnessed how it can kill momentum and affect profitability. That’s why, when I work with clients, I focus on unifying the sales and marketing teams through a variety of methods.

Educate and engage both teams

Both the sales and marketing teams need to fully understand how they complement each other; they need to see the vision and goals of the organization, the target audience, and the marketing messaging you want to use to attract and engage that audience. One way to achieve this is to ask for the sales teams’ commitment to reinforcing the branding messaging and for their ideas on deliverables.

It’s ideal if all parties understand the roles each team plays, their goals, and how they operate, at least to some degree. For example, be clear about how the marketing team will support the sales team (e.g. how they’ll allocate the leads that they generate) and what the sales team will do with the resources the marketing team develops. This transparency can reduce some of the competitiveness between the two groups.

Invite members of both teams to staff meetings and solicit feedback on a regular basis. If the sales team can only manage 10 leads per week, the marketing team needs to create tactics that will help achieve that. Giving them 100 leads per week without warning them would be counterproductive and causes additional friction.

If you don’t ask, you won’t know

Salespeople are on the frontline. They hear all the objections and the praise. They know the types of challenges that their customers are facing because they’ve specifically asked about them. They also have a good idea about how to effectively speak to your target market because they’ve honed their sales pitch after successes and failures. The marketing team should use that knowledge to their advantage when developing content.

In addition to generating leads and building brand awareness, a critical role for marketing is to arm the sales force with information that they can use to educate themselves. The marketing team shouldn’t make assumptions about what the sales team needs; they should ask. And they shouldn’t be offended if the sales force doesn’t feel there’s value in a certain type of marketing material. There is no point producing something that is unlikely to be used, as the resources of doing so would simply be wasted.

But sales should be honest about deficiencies. I worked with a client that had a fantastic product and great marketing, but they weren’t seeing sales. We went back to the drawing board and developed new messaging, deliverables, and sales training to overcome customer objections (beyond the typical “make it cheaper”). After the “relaunch”, they started seeing better results. Providing customers are open to it, marketing should participate in customer sales meetings, where they can actually ask the customers how they’d like to receive information.

Break down barriers between the two teams

It surprises me how siloed the sales and marketing teams can be when they have the same objective: to make money for the company.

It’s essential to eliminate the red tape and bureaucracy that prevent these two teams from collaborating. Ways to achieve this include increasing the time they spend together; creating opportunities for them to communicate, share ideas, and brainstorm; and discussing what is and isn’t working. And then celebrating successes together.

All this helps to build trust and cooperation, while ensuring that everyone is on the same page and knows how to support the overall business goals and reinforce the messaging.

Ramp-up communication before and after a campaign

When you are launching a new product or campaign or promoting an event, step-up communication even more. For many organizations, the communication process slows down or stops altogether once the launch occurs. However, it’s critical that the two teams frequently engage to discuss how things are going and pinpoint tweaks that can improve the campaign or success of a launch. You need to ensure that you keep the dialogue going.

In summary, bringing your sales and marketing teams together is key to success. However, depending on how fractured the relationship between the two is, it may be a slow and difficult process. So, if you find you are struggling to end the war between your sales and marketing teams, I’m ready to help. Contact me today.