 Business is good. Accounts keep coming in. Our team doesn't have any drama, and everyone works together well. The only problem is... I feel like opportunities are being missed because of my lack of organization. How do I get my sales team organized? Can you relate to the above thoughts? Many SMB owners who run successful companies have to face the "organization dilemma" at some point in their journey. Maybe it was easy to handle the day-to-day of sales when you were just starting out — but now you have an entire sales team to manage, and dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of accounts to maintain. Are you giving your reps the direction they need to succeed? Are you giving them guidelines and boundaries that will keep them focused? Has your sales process been broken up into defined stages or steps? Your business may be doing great. With a more organized approach in place, it could do even better. So we go back to the original question: Where should you start? Here are three practical tips that can help you keep your sales team organized, focused, and effective: 1. Get Intentional The first thing you need to realize as an owner is that unless your company has a designated sales leader... you are the sales leader. You're the one your reps will look to for clarity, structure, and support. You're the one who can either empower your team to exceed expectations... or hinder them from reaching their full potential. Bottom line? It starts and ends with you. And that's why it's so crucial to get intentional with your sales process. Being intentional means starting with the end in mind. In other words, you need to develop a clear "game plan" for your sales team. What exactly is their role in the overall process? For example:
It's important to define your main objectives, and then work out the details that go into each one. This is where the concept of "co-creation" can really generate a positive impact on your process. Communicate with your sales team. Lay out your vision for them to see, and then work with them on how best to make the vision a reality. If you can come out of those meetings with a process your team can get behind 100%, it's a win-win, hands down. 2. Ensure You Have the Right Tech Stack Let's say you've already defined your primary objectives, and have given structure to the overall sales process. All the documentation is set, and your team is onboard with your game plan. Now the challenge is to make sure that your tech stack supports your vision. The size, scope, and nature of your business should inform the kind of tech stack you have — as should the makeup of your sales team, and your recently defined goals. Companies in the SMB space often use CRM platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, or Pipedrive (to name a few). The exact features and subscription plan(s) you'll need will depend on the intricacy of your sales process. Just as an example, imagine that you want your sales team to manage automated drip campaigns as part of their lead nurturing duties. You'd need to make sure that your CRM system offers email templates, the ability to set up automated email sequences, and a way to effectively segment prospects according to shared characteristics like funnel stage, company size, geographical location, and so on. Along with a robust CRM platform that meets all of your sales team's needs, you also want strong reporting built into the process. KPIs and other metrics can provide you with a helpful "snapshot" of your sales process' current status. Reports can also help you to identify bottlenecks in the pipeline, and even determine which reps could use some extra training. 3. Work, Review, Discuss, Iterate Okay, you have your process in place. You have the right tech stack to support your goals. What's the next step? Simple: it's time to work the plan. Working the plan is often that secret ingredient that separates a good sales team from a great one. Just stop for a moment and think about all the ways that a cohesive plan will enhance the effectiveness of your reps:
Of course, as you and your team work the plan, you'll inevitably identify opportunities for growth. So make sure to periodically examine the data you receive. Hold intentional meetings where you ask your reps for their feedback, and then discuss possible solutions. Don't be afraid to iterate your sales process — the next version may be at least a little better than the current one! True, it will take time and effort to develop and implement a more organized approach. But if you follow the three tips discussed above, your team will be more scalable, more focused, and ultimately more successful. If you'd like more insights on how you can improve your sales leadership, contact us. Or sign up for our newsletter for more valuable resources.  One of the biggest challenges that a business organization may face is finding an effective way to achieve marketing and sales alignment. Obviously, both departments are important to the company's overall success. In fact, you could think of them as the two wings of a bird. Without either one functioning properly, there's no way your organization will be able to "fly," much less soar.
The issue is that these two teams are often at loggerheads with each other. Marketing is upset that sales isn't sticking to their message. Sales is upset that marketing isn't giving them properly qualified leads. And so on and so on. You get the idea. Marketing and sales alignment is non-existent. Even when the two departments are at peace with each other, there may still be a lack of alignment between them. Strategies and objectives may differ. And there may be a deeply ingrained "silo mentality" within both teams. With all that in mind, how do you achieve marketing and sales alignment? How about this proposal: why not have someone oversee both marketing and sales on a macroscopic level? This person could bring everything together by developing and implementing a unified strategy. Their role defines primary revenue goals and KPIs, and ensures that both teams are in lockstep with the plan. Let's discuss how marketing and sales perform different functions within an organization. And we'll address why appointing a leader to head up both departments may be a winning play. The Role of Marketing Go back to the traditional paradigm of the "sales funnel." Marketing definitely owns the top of that funnel, and at least some of the middle. Of course, your marketing team's first goal is to generate favorable exposure for your brand. This typically involves all the high-level tactics and acronyms that are so popular today (SEO, PPC, SEM, and so forth). However, marketers are also interested in educating and conditioning prospects before handing them over to sales. Think of it this way. If you're walking into a meeting with a prospect you've never met, and know nothing about, how comfortable would you feel? But what if a colleague prepped you for the meeting? They might describe what the prospect is like. They may tell you what they're interested in, what pain points they're dealing with, and the solutions they're considering? You'd feel a lot more confident going into the meeting, right? In the same way, marketing's role is to educate prospects before they're introduced to sales. Marketers should give prospects an idea of what they can expect throughout the sales process. How does the company's product or service can address their pain points? Of course, a well-aligned marketing department will also give the sales team the info they need to successfully close the deal. The Role of Sales Once the MQL has turned into an SQL, it's time for the sales team to take over. Their job is to interact with the qualified lead, answer questions in detail, and help the prospect make a well-informed decision as to whether your product or service is right for them. They may have a stake in the middle-of-funnel "evaluation" stage. And they definitely own the bottom-of-funnel "decision" stage of the buyer's journey. In some cases, your sales reps may also serve as account managers, especially if your customers have a long lifetime value (LTV). Regardless, your sales team is focused on forging strong, ongoing relationships with clients, and proposing in-depth solutions for each one's particular needs. Of course, they also want to close the sale in a way that's mutually beneficial for both parties. If you frame the roles of these two departments in baseball terms, marketing is like your starting pitcher. And your sales team is your closer. The problem arises when they're both trying to be on the mound at the same time. And this is where having both departments answer to one person starts making a lot of sense. Where the VP of Revenue Fits Into the Picture t's true that marketing and sales usually operate independently of one another. However, there are a ton of areas in which their activities could overlap. For instance, what conditions determine when a lead transitions from marketing-qualified to sales-qualified? How in-depth should a marketer go into a product's features before introducing a sales rep to the prospect? Who should determine the company's UVP (unique value proposition) for a major service offering? Without a centralized authority figure in place, it can be extremely difficult for both departments to get on the same page. In contrast, appointing someone to whom both the director of marketing and the director of sales must report to -- the title could be VP of Revenue or Director of Revenue, just as a couple of suggestions -- can be a huge help in building an integrated team. We include "revenue" in the proposed title because the point of this position would really be to avoid trapped revenue in the funnel. When you have marketing and sales alignment in terms of strategies, tactics, reporting, accountability, and assigned tasks, the ultimate effect is a smooth experience for the customer. There won't be any more friction points that send a lead flying out of the funnel, or messaging inconsistencies that lead to "closed lost" situations. Instead, your company will become a lean, mean, revenue-generating engine. Final Thoughts on Marketing and Sales Alignment To sum up: marketing and sales each have distinct roles within the overall sales process. There may be challenges to alignment. However, appointing someone who's responsible for both departments is one excellent option for getting (and keeping) everyone on the same page. Whatever you call the person (Director of Revenue, VP of Revenue, or just Director of Marketing & Sales), you can expect them to look at revenue holistically. In addition, they can make sure that the entire buyer's journey is a smooth progression through the sales funnel, and work with directors and team leaders to address any bottlenecks they identify. If you're looking for ways to improve your organization's sales performance, and alignment between marketing and sales is a key issue that needs to be addressed, seriously consider implementing this solution. You may find it's the best way to integrate both teams into a unified whole. If you'd like more insights on how you can improve your sales leadership, contact us. Or sign up for our newsletter for more valuable resources.  Too often, the concepts of sales funnel and marketing funnel are used interchangeably. The truth, though, is much more complex than that. Each are unique concepts. However, both also have to be integrated with each other for a truly successful sales and marketing operation.
That doesn't always happen. We've often worked with clients who have had to close a gap between marketing and sales. Or, they treat the two departments as identical. So, in this post, we'll explain the differences and unique aspects of sales and marketing funnels. And we'll dig into how to make sure both work together for maximum sales and revenue performance. Just the Basics: The Marketing Funnel The marketing funnel drives audiences from the first time they become aware of your brand. They are pushed through whatever process or system marketing has developed to prepare and prime these leads for a transfer to sales. This involves all the steps and stages from bringing the lead into your CRM until they are ready to consider purchasing your product or service. Within that basic definition, the marketing funnel usually includes a few crucial steps as the audience narrows down from your entire potential customer base to marketing and sales-qualified leads:
Just the Basics: The Sales Funnel The sales funnel takes sales-ready leads in the CRM, and drives towards a customer conversion (i.e. a sales transaction). That includes a few important steps to narrow down the audience over time:
Where Sales and Marketing Funnels Intersect Based on the unique processes and differences between marketing and sales funnels, it's tempting to keep the two separate. Unfortunately, that can cause some significant issues. Bridging the gap between marketing and sales is absolutely necessary for a consistent, integrated customer experience. That's especially true because, as clearly distinct as the definitions for each might be, they also clearly intersect. In fact, the bottom of the marketing funnel is typically synonymous with the top of the sales funnel. Marketing often ends with lead generation. But this should not be the case. These leads immediately need to be nurtured, starting with the first email they receive to thank them for their contact information. Interest naturally flows into the more conversion-oriented process. In turn, the sales team looks to engage these leads when they either raise their hand or demonstrate activities that indicate they are primed and ready to interact with the sales team. While the emphasis might be different, it pays to think of the marketing and sales funnels as an integrated whole. They both benefit from one another to maximize opportunity. The whole, in this case, truly does become bigger than the sum of its parts. 5 Opportunities To Integrate Your Sales and Marketing Funnels Fortunately, once the marketing and sales funnels are viewed as a larger whole, integration possibilities become more visible. These five opportunities are especially easy to implement as you look to build a better customer journey for your audience. 1. Sales Insights for Marketing Strategy What does your sales team know about prospects as they move through the funnel? What types of prospects are most likely to convert to customers? Marketing can use this information to better target its efforts, from different demographic targeting to the channels chosen for promotion. 2. Lead Generation and Nurturing Overlaps The traditional marketing funnel ends with lead generation. Conversely, the traditional sales funnel begins with lead nurturing. In reality, though, the two concepts are almost necessarily connected. For audiences, they're likely seen as a single process. Thus, a mutual planning effort to make sure that any lead generation messaging and channel strategy matches with its lead nurturing equivalent is vital for a more consistent, successful strategy. For example, sales teams can call prospects that might not be hand-raised leads yet, introducing themselves and setting the stage for later nurturing efforts. 3. Marketing Content To Improve Sales Efforts The job of the marketing team is not necessarily done when a new lead is generated. Lead nurturing, and even the pitching process, can often benefit from additional resources that marketing can provide to support the velocity of leads moving into and through the sales funnel. For example, blog posts, short videos, or even private LinkedIn groups can all help sales in their efforts to convert new customers. 4. Integrated Messaging Throughout Both Sales and Marketing Integration is the name of the game. And that's especially true for messaging throughout both funnels. Experienced marketers already know that the language and selling points of awareness-based ads have to match up with landing pages, conversion messaging, and more to truly make an audience impact. It's only natural to conclude, then, that this consistency can't stop at the marketing-sales hand-off. The more one core message drives the strategy from awareness to customer conversion, the more convincing that message will become. 5. Comprehensive, Action-Based Insights Finally, sharing analytics and reports can be a significant boon to both marketing and sales in improving their efforts. Insights from sales can help marketing adjust their efforts, while marketing insights can provide a crucial background for sales to optimize theirs. Knowing whether a lead came from social media or a Google search can help to optimize the sales pitch, and vice versa. In short, the natural gap between marketing and sales needs to be as non-obvious as possible for audiences. That's only possible with a direct integration between marketing and sales funnels, all working towards the shared goal of optimizing customer conversions and revenue. If you'd like more insights on how you can improve your sales leadership, contact us. Or sign up for our newsletter for more valuable resources.  For many businesses, the "gap" between their marketing and sales departments might as well be the Grand Canyon. Marketing and sales aren't on the same page. They live in "siloed" spaces — and they don't even like each other! If you're facing such a challenge within your organization, then you're far from alone.
The question is: Why is there a gap between these two departments? Ultimately, their goal is the same: to win customers and close sales. Yet, they often seem to be at odds with one another. Let's dig a little deeper, and see if we can discover some reasons why the gap exists. Discrepancies in Time and Space While there could be several reasons why your marketing and sales teams aren't in alignment, two of the most common ones have to do with what we'll call "discrepancies in time and space." Here's what we mean by that: 1. Time Sales reps often view time very differently from marketers. For them, speedy results are critical. They have quotas to meet, deals to close, and precious little time to do it! In contrast, marketers often take a more long-range view of the buyer's journey. They're interested in deploying tactics that may not have immediate results, but will have a cumulative effect on their target audience. 2. Space The sales and marketing teams occupy very different spaces — literally and metaphorically. They often come under the oversight of different managers, have different goals, and interact with customers in two completely different ways. For instance, sales reps spend a lot of their time working with prospects that are in the later stages of the sales funnel. On the other hand, marketers may spend more time interacting with existing customers as part of focus groups. When you combine these two factors, it's easy to see why a gap could exist between marketing and sales. Traditionally, they live on different (and sometimes competing) schedules, and see the consumer base from vastly different perspectives. Listen to Gretchen Lehman of The Carruthers Group and I discuss this topic in this video clip. How to Bridge the Gap Of course, knowing why the gap exists isn't going to change things in and of itself. The question is: How can you bridge that gap, and successfully integrate marketing and sales? Here are three basic tips that can help:
True, bridging the gap between marketing and sales may be easier said than done. However, with some time, forethought, and patience, you'll be able to successfully do so, and align the strengths of both teams toward sustainable growth. If you'd like more insights on how you can improve your sales leadership, contact us. Or sign up for our newsletter for more valuable resources. |
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