Smarketing: How to aling Sales & Marketing

We all know the differences that often exist between marketing and sales, the main consequence of which is that they do not take advantage of the potential of two fundamental profiles for any organization, i.e., they do not generate synergies between them. Usually, the Marketing department focuses mainly on attracting visits to the web, converting them into leads and nurturing those leads in order to direct them through their customer journey until the moment when they are ready for conversion. Whereas sales sees these leads as unique and treats them one by one to convert them into customers within a given timeframe.

This is not an issue that has only arisen nowadays, a good proof of this was the reflection written by Kotler in 2006 where he talked about "Ending the War Between Sales and Marketing" (highly recommended reading). However, what is more novel is the concept of Smarketing as defined by HubSpot:

Smarketing as a new reality

"Smarketing is the effective alignment of marketing and sales teams. The purpose it pursues is to work in the same channel to raise the scope of goals and objectives in common; evaluate the progress made and make the necessary adjustments to meet the established."

This can lead any organization, mainly B2B, to achieve spectacular levels of quality, raising the competitiveness of the entire company and, therefore, the satisfaction of the end customer.?

The concept of Smarketing comes from the union of sales + marketing. The strategic alignment between marketing and sales aims to maximize the quantitative and qualitative impact of actions towards potential customers that will impact business growth.?

In fact, they claim that companies with a smarketing strategy increase sales win rates by 38%; companies that have well aligned Sales and Marketing departments have seen their business grow faster by 24% and sales teams are 67% more efficient at closing deals. Smarketing practices serve to build a successful long-term strategy that efficiently integrates communication, marketing content and the attention and follow-up of prospects and customers, so that they are also a reflection of the quality of your product or service.?

Although it is true that the Marketing department has several tools, the truth is that if this and the Sales department are in the same channel, they will enhance their capabilities. The results will lead not only to an increase in sales and customer retention, but over time your company will have a deep understanding of consumers.?

As smarketing becomes a fundamental aspect of your brand, you'll find that you'll better hone your targets and further define your buyer persona. Instead of sending messages all over the world, you recognize that your solutions resonate better with a specific group. Thus, everything you invest in this work will be converted into real results that you can measure, analyze, repeat and improve.

SMARKETING 5 BASIS

1. Speak the same language

The most important thing in smarketing is that there is clear communication between Sales and Marketing. And that starts from the moment you define responsibilities, concepts and objectives.

Start with your Flywheel: determine the stages of the cycle, who is responsible for each stage and what elements are necessary for a lead to be considered qualified. These three aspects are explained in more detail below.

The sales cycle is divided into different stages, and each stage needs a particular area to focus on. By clearly agreeing on how it works and relates to Sales and Marketing, a more transparent and efficient strategy can be designed.

As you can see, the customer-based cycle or flywheel does not have a series of steps to follow, but is composed of an infinite circle that is driven by the strength provided by each element. Everything revolves around the customer, so each stage is important to complete customer satisfaction with a brand or company.?

2. Implement a service level agreement

A service level agreement between Sales and Marketing defines what each team commits to achieve to support the other in shared profit goals. You could say that this type of agreement crystallizes alignment around objectives.

Therefore, a service level agreement goes both ways: Marketing commits to deliver qualified leads, and Sales commits to follow them up as quickly and efficiently as possible to convert them into customers.

To reach this agreement it is important that you study the numbers between the departments, such as how many calls or emails are sent to a prospect to become a qualified lead; how many visitors to the site must be reached per month in the first phase of the sales journey, etc. It is essential that they make a thorough analysis of the work invested by the members of both teams and the results achieved in each period.

3. Establish a feedback system

The idea is to achieve a process that allows you to share metrics, analytics and objectives achieved, but also a space in which there is an exchange of impressions, suggestions, aspects to improve and, why not, recognition of a job well done.

How do you know if this reporting system with constant feedback is a necessity in your smarketing team? You and your marketing team can ask yourselves the following questions to measure your interaction levels: when you send leads to sales, do you hear nothing from them again? Do you end up creating and trying to manage duplicate leads? Do you send leads to sales with basic contact information, but without a profile containing the type of content those leads consumed? Do you not know what impact the marketing team's efforts are having on the bottom line? If the answer to any of the above questions was yes, a feedback reporting system will undoubtedly help you improve the performance of both teams in your company.

What constitutes a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)?

It is a lead that, in addition to identifying with aspects of your buyer persona, shows a high level of interest in your brand. The higher the level of interest and identification, the more follow-up you should give them. You can think about the actions you should take in the face of an MQL, as mentioned above, from the following matrix:

Finally, there must be feedback between Marketing and Sales when sharing leads. It is possible that an MQL does not become a SQL (sales qualified lead) and must go one step back. If Marketing does not know the reasons why Sales does not consider their leads qualified, it will be difficult for them to improve the process and the mistake will be repeated again.

4. Trust the data you collect

While it may not be as much fun as the creativity of a marketing campaign, data is your best friend. At the end of the day, it's what proves whether or not your work is performing as well as you want it to. Graphs, metrics, averages, goals achieved, resources invested, among others: all these data should be at hand for both teams and be as clear as possible.

Again, it's all about communication. And if you rely on numbers to measure the impact and success of a strategy, it is easier to put aside emotional responses that do not allow for constructive criticism or the search for solutions or alternatives to challenges.

5. Keep communication open

Everything that happens in Sales and Marketing should be made known in Sales and Marketing. Try to take time out of your agenda to meet periodically. In addition to helping build stronger bonds with members, it ensures that everyone has the latest information.

A weekly meeting with everyone can serve to share the latest news, progress and analysis. The monthly meeting can be a bit longer and should be planned for key stakeholders. This will give space to solve specific problems and more time can be devoted to the evolution of a specific strategy.

Remember that campaigns and products, product launches or improvements, available promotions or last minute changes should be shared with everyone, with short, simple and clear messages or emails. In general, everyone is part of the same team, so communicate as such.

Finally, so that your smarketing implementation does not lose direction or weaken, it is important to maintain a series of good practices that we present below.

10 USEFUL PRACTICES

1. Meet and agree on a regular basis.
2. Come up with an alias for the team email.
3. Establish a content creation process.
4. Coordinate your content marketing campaigns with the Sales team.
5. Help showcase your salespeople's knowledge.
6. Make a marketing specialist available to take calls.
7. Listen to calls.
8. Facilitate training, if needed.
9. Organize sales enablement resources in an easily accessible location.
10. Have fun and get to know each other.

WHO HAS THE RESPONSABILITY TO LEAD THE CHANGE

This is probably one of the most difficult questions to answer. Well, this person does not have to be a total expert in marketing or sales, in fact, sometimes coming 100% from one of these two disciplines can even be detrimental.?

In any case, a person in this role must have a transversal thinking about the market, the organization and above all great strategic thinking. A business person who is able to understand the entire funnel with a strong focus on solving customer needs.