 Automation is a powerful tool for increasing the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and driving sales. But for most companies, automation can't be based on numbers alone. Think for a moment about the work your sales reps do: most deals they close are ultimately attributable to their relationship with the customer. They are "on the front lines" with leads and prospects, answering questions they have and addressing concerns that arise. Probably more than anyone else in your business, your sales reps have a finger on the pulse of your customer base.
With that in mind, gathering not just numerical data but also anecdotal evidence when developing an automation strategy is vital. Effective data gathering will make a lead's transition from interacting with marketing content to speaking with a live salesperson much smoother and more effective. Interviewing Your Sales Team One of the best ways your marketing department can come up with great ideas for content is to periodically interview your sales team. These meetings should be very structured and should take place regularly (perhaps once a month). Marketing leaders can use targeted questions that will help them clearly understand and define what problems leads are facing, and which solutions they are especially interested in. On the other side of the table, sales reps can come prepared with stories of their experiences with leads over the past month, and pertinent details of their interactions. Here are some examples of targeted questions that sales and marketing team members can explore together:
The objective of these questions, from Marketing's perspective, is to develop content that would generate leads who are more primed, more prepared, and more interested in conversations about buying your company's solution. You can see how powerful such interview sessions could be! Just imagine: if marketing can use the input from your sales team to create an automated strategy that ensures the right content gets to the right leads, it can be a win-win for everyone involved. Add a well-designed lead-scoring system into the mix. It will make it that much easier to keep low-quality leads exposed to marketing materials while allowing your sales reps to focus more of their attention on high-quality leads —i.e., leads who are more likely to buy. It's true this type of alignment doesn't happen overnight; but once your sales and marketing teams are on the same page and experience wins together, it will build momentum and act as a force multiplier for your company's success. Shaping Automations is an Ongoing Process It's no secret that customer behavior can change for all sorts of external reasons — the time of year, the state of the economy, etc. In addition, most businesses don't have completely static offerings. Products and services may evolve. For these and other reasons, it's vital that shaping automations through data analysis become (or remain) an ongoing process. Over time, your company will likely develop a variety of sales funnels and campaigns around several central themes. They may revolve around a certain season, event, product launch, or discount. Whatever the case may be, tracking engagement and conversion metrics via your CRM and other automation tools will give you a glimpse into the effectiveness of your content. Then you can decide whether to double down on your current approach or make adjustments for future campaigns. Also, don't be afraid to test out new ideas! For example, one private jet chartering company wanted to get higher conversions on their marketing spend. By experimenting with highly specific Google search queries, the company was able to achieve up to a 10% conversion rate based on their targeted landing pages. Develop Nurture Strategies Every company wants to effectively nurture their leads until they are ready to make a purchase decision — and the type of content your leads interact with says a lot about the type of information they need to finally make that decision. One powerful, data-based automation strategy you can lean into is sending email content to your leads based on the pages of the websites they visit. For example, one company leveraged its ambassador program to drive conversion rates. But more than that, they developed an automation around that program which was triggered when a lead clicked through a certain number of testimonials and case studies on their website. The data showed that the interest was there; the automated email sequence struck while the iron was hot. Of course, it's also important to offer the right thing at the right time in the buyer's journey. Lead nurturing strategies can become counterproductive if they result in a lot of wasted time and effort on low-quality leads. For instance, be careful when and to whom you offer free consultations. If that offer is mainly focused on middle-of-funnel prospects, they may only want free information without any serious intent to purchase. The end result may be a lot of free consultations and zero purchases. The point is, that it's important to adequately qualify leads before transitioning them to direct interactions with your sales team. Automation strategies that take this important factor into account will be most effective for your business. At the end of the day, you need hard data to successfully automate your processes; but you also need to keep a finger on the pulse of your customer base. Conduct regular interviews with your salespeople. Experiment with different automations. Develop realistic nurture strategies. If you do all these things, you're that much closer to optimizing your sales performance and maximizing profitability. Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in a new book called Sales & Marketing Alignment. 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.  We've all heard the expression "work smarter, not harder." When it comes to your sales and marketing teams, getting the most out of marketing automation is one way to do just that. Proper use of marketing automation tools, combined with the capabilities of a CRM system, can sharpen the efficiency of your overall sales process.
Of course, this requires your sales and marketing teams to work together. For instance, there has to be alignment on how to set up automations, when to implement drip campaigns, and how to score leads. But once that alignment has been achieved, you are on your way to building a high-performing sales organization poised for growth. The next step is to use technology to leverage up your sales and marketing activities and increase overall effectiveness. What Is Marketing Automation? The phrase "marketing automation" gets thrown around a lot, but you may wonder what it means. In short, it's a catchall phrase given to software applications that engage with prospects in the funnel based on their online actions. As far as what the customer sees, this usually involves email messages sent to them automatically based on their specific actions or series of actions, pop-up chat boxes specific to certain webpages on a website, or other methods of digital outreach triggered by an action they've taken. For example, if a prospect scrolls down your company's homepage, a chat box may pop up offering to assist them. Or if a prospect has already signed up for your email list and visits a specific product page, that action may trigger an email offering them more info on the product or similar offerings. The main concept is that automation behind the scenes serves some type of predetermined content that marketing believes is valuable to a lead, based on that lead’s actions. If you think about marketing automation in this way, these strategies and the corresponding automations enable your organization to be more attentive to your prospects and leads in ways no marketer or sales rep could ever do on their own. Instead of staying attuned to dozens of prospects at a time, your teams can stay connected with thousands of them! How To Get the Most Out of Marketing Automation and CRM Systems First, it's important to clarify what a CRM is. "CRM" stands for "customer relationship management." It is a contact management system for your prospects and customers that doubles as a segmentation platform. When your marketing automation is properly integrated with your CRM, your data becomes supercharged data. Ultimately, sales and marketing can work more cohesively and effectively. How? The goal is to combine the information you have about your customers in your CRM with marketing automation. This integration allows you to automate appropriate follow-ups and touchpoints at the right time and place in the sales funnel. As a result, you can enhance the serving of relevant content to your leads, prospects, and customers, enabling the lead scoring that helps you monitor their progress through the funnel and intervene at just the right time. Nurture Leads With Drip Campaigns Drip campaigns are email sequences used to stay in touch with prospects as they move through the sales funnel. These emails may be triggered by specific characteristics, specific locations of the lead within the different stages of your sales funnel, or through specific actions the lead takes. In short, a strategy that includes drip campaigns provides a series of emails with relevant content to a lead over a period of time - with the messaging tailored to appeal to the lead based on where they are in their buyer's journey. Of course, one email sequence by itself could never cover all the customer segments you want to interact with. That's why your sales and marketing teams must put their heads together and develop your core buyer personas — and perhaps variations on each persona, depending on how deep you want to drill down. When your teams are in alignment on this, your drip campaigns will be much more targeted and effective as they will align to both your specific buyer personas and where each lead is within the buyer’s journey. Some examples of drip campaigns include:
Use CRM Lead Scoring To Convert Leads Lead scoring is an objective ranking of sales prospects and leads according to factors like interest level and sales-readiness. Your team members may not be able to read prospects' minds, but a well-designed lead-scoring system is the next best thing. The main purpose of lead scoring is to help your sales team prioritize which prospects they should spend their time on, and which ones need to be nurtured a bit more before reaching out. There are all sorts of criteria, ranging from explicit factors like the prospect's industry, company, or job title, to implicit considerations like number of web pages visited, frequency of site visits, materials accessed or downloaded, etc. Most lead scoring systems function on some type of base scale, like from 1-10 or 1-100 — or more specifically, several scales of 1-10 that add up to an overall score for each lead. The important thing is that everyone in sales and marketing agrees on the lead scoring criteria and then sticks to it. Of course, the best way to make this happen is to develop the lead scoring criteria together, across both departments. Then once the system is in place, scores can be calculated and tracked across your CRM and marketing automation platforms (such as HubSpot or Salesforce). Everyone has insight into each lead's score and can take appropriate action as needed. It's true that it takes some effort on the front end to integrate marketing automation and your CRM, set up drip campaigns, and develop and implement a workable lead-scoring system. However, if you're willing to put in the work, and if your sales and marketing teams are willing to work together, then those tools will provide your company with long-term benefits. You'll truly be working smarter, not harder, and your sales performance will improve accordingly. It’s all about intentionality, action, and accountability - putting in the hard work up front to make your entire sales process more streamlined and effective. Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in a new book called Sales & Marketing Alignment. 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.  If you want your sales strategy to succeed, you have to put serious forethought into it. The haphazard approach — in which reps are told to sit down in front of the phone and start selling to someone — rarely works in the sales industry. Instead, integration between your sales and marketing teams is key to repeated (and repeatable) wins.
Everyone needs to know how different customers may enter their sales funnel, what they may be looking for at each stage, and how marketing and sales can work together to guide them through the funnel and toward an eventual purchase. This overall knowledge is the basis of intentional sales strategy; in turn, the specific actions and tools your salespeople use to guide leads on their journey are your sales tactics. Factors of Effective Sales Strategy Design It's vital that you understand the key factors influencing whether your sales strategy is successful or not. Three of the biggest factors to keep in mind are: 1. Lead Sources Where are your leads coming from, and what's the nature and extent of their interest? A lead that downloads an e-book from your website may have a different level of interest compared to one who attends an hour-long webinar. Or maybe not! Either way, your sales and marketing teams need to understand that the origin of each lead will help them understand how to nurture that lead effectively. 2. Lead Categorization Leads can typically be separated into 3 common categories:
Lead categorization provides sales and marketing with additional valuable insights into how to best guide leads into and through the sales funnel. 3. Lead History Knowing how long most leads are generally in your sales funnel before they make a purchase, coupled with knowing each lead's history of interaction with your company, can help you develop highly impactful sales strategies and tactics. For instance, an automated email sequence with a CTA to book an appointment may work for one type of lead, whereas a personalized email from a sales rep may be more effective with another. The important thing is that your sales and marketing teams are in complete alignment on these 3 factors, and understand how leads will be sorted, categorized, and nurtured throughout their time in your funnel. Building a Sales and Marketing Toolbox, and Training Your Team Just like you need different equipment to go snow skiing vs. water skiing, you need different strategies and tactics (or at least tweaks to your current strategies and tactics) for each campaign your company decides to tackle. For instance, you may need different talking points for a special campaign compared to your normal marketing message. Of course, you'll also need to ensure that sales and marketing are working together with operations and IT, as needed, to develop the resources your campaign needs. You can think of all of these collected resources as your sales and marketing "toolbox" — an organizing principle that allows for easy maintenance, updating, and training for your team. Building this toolbox, and then training sales reps to use the tools within it effectively, will increase your team's confidence and improve ROI on lead capture efforts. Make sure as you build the toolbox that you document best practices. Keep monitoring your toolbox's effectiveness, and be willing to adapt as needed. And then... document those adaptations! As you grow in your understanding of every step of the campaign's sales process, you'll create a huge competitive advantage for your company. You'll also create shorter sales cycles, improved sales performance, and higher close rates. Using and Sharing Data To Increase Close Rates In general, sales and marketing teams have access to different types of data. However, both teams need quantitative and qualitative data to function effectively; and when they pool their knowledge, it can make everything that much better. Sharing and comparing data drives alignment and success. When you think of quantitative data, you may think about metrics like lead populations, click-through rates, conversion rates, email open rates, average sales cycle timing, and so forth. All of these are valuable pieces of information that, when used properly, can help your sales and marketing teams pinpoint opportunities for improvement and growth. In addition, qualitative data like lead quality, interest levels, observed trends, or even "gut feelings" also play a key role in shaping your overall process. When your teams review both types of data together on a regular basis, they are empowered to act in a collaborative, integrated way. Far from a siloed mentality, they are able to ideate and implement specific, tangible improvements to your company's current sales and marketing framework. This type of collaborative approach taps into what's really the most important part of sales: not a single strategy, tactic, or process, but the culture created among your sales and marketing teams. When your culture is focused, aligned, and dynamic, it can provide game-changing feedback to your organization. Designing Purposeful Sales Strategies and Tactics When you develop strategies and tactics that align with each type of lead, you can unlock tremendous untapped value. When your sales team shares its vision and insights with your marketing team, and vice versa, it creates the basis for a sustainable, ever-improving process of lead capture, nurture, and conversion. Integration of your sales and marketing teams is the heart and soul of a winning strategy. Granted, developing a collaborative culture and then using it as the leading edge of a sharp, focused sales and marketing initiative is easier said than done. However, once you've laid the groundwork, the maintenance is much easier. And as you continue growing in knowledge of your target leads, and your sales and marketing teams become more comfortable with one another, you're putting yourself in a prime position to win the day, every day for the foreseeable future. Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in a new book called Sales & Marketing Alignment. 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.  When some marketing professionals hear the term "sales funnel," it can be a bit of a turn-off. They may think that the company's sales funnel has nothing to do with them; that they're busy managing the brand, while sales reps are doing the unrelated work of closing deals.
The reality is that the sales funnel really encompasses all aspects of a business — especially the sales and marketing teams. Marketing tasks shouldn't just float on the surface of that funnel, inviting leads to come in. Rather, impactful marketing should work with sales to create concrete projections and deliver tangible results. Of course, sales should also collaborate with marketing to provide the information they need to craft the company's messaging. Simply put, sharing truly is caring when it comes to sales and marketing alignment. When both teams buy into a unified approach, then the entire brand will flourish. The key is for each team to have a broader mindset than what would usually be expected. How Marketing Can Operate With a Sales-Oriented Mindset Marketing pros need to be focused on traditional measures of marketing success: numbers, analytics, branding, content engagement, etc. However, the best marketers are also customer advocates. They can put themselves in the shoes of the consumer, and understand their interests, goals, and pain points. This is where your sales team comes into the picture. Sales reps have a direct line of communication with end users and thus possess a uniquely valuable perspective on what truly resonates with customers. When your sales team keeps marketing informed about which messages are most effective for closing deals — and when marketing is open to those insights — then your company's top-of-funnel strategy will become ever stronger, and conversion rates will increase throughout the sales funnel. Avoiding Waste with Sales-Centric Marketing Another key benefit of approaching marketing with a sales-centered mindset is the avoidance of unnecessary waste — in particular, financial waste that affects the company's bottom line. Marketers who approach the top of the funnel with a purely quantity-based mindset may succeed in attracting a lot of leads, but they often don't consider how likely or unlikely those leads are to make a purchase. In contrast, a sales-centric approach can inform top-of-funnel marketing activities, so that even if the number of leads coming into the sales pipeline is slightly reduced, their quality is increased. This will result in a tighter, more focused approach from your sales team — and less wasted effort chasing low-value leads. (At the same time, using even basic targeting tools will help your marketing team focus on high-value marketing leads, which will also help the sales team in the end.) Valuing Your Sales Team's Time and Skills Some marketing teams fall into the trap of approaching the sales funnel with an "if we build it, they will come" mentality. In other words, they believe that if the product is awesome enough, and the company's marketing infrastructure is powerful enough (e.g., a great website, a strong social media presence), customers will buy based on those merits alone — salespeople not required. The reality is, many customers won't even consider buying from a brand unless they're first encouraged to do so by a skilled sales rep. Your company's sales team is full of individuals with a unique talent, and the ability to effectively nurture leads into paying customers. When your marketing team has genuine respect for your sales team (and vice versa), each team will be more willing to set the other up for success. How Sales Can Operate With a Marketing-Oriented Mindset We've talked about how marketing can be more effective when they think in terms of sales — but does it also work the other way around? Will your sales team perform better if they introduce a "marketing mindset" into their process? The simple answer is: Absolutely! When your sales team has a firm grasp of the work marketing does, and how it relates to their success, then they'll be able to put themselves in the best possible position to close deals. Understanding the Nature of Online Research Your sales team needs to understand which type of lead they may encounter in any given transaction. The key here is becoming familiar with your company's marketing materials — on your website, on social media, and so forth. Sometimes a lead will show up ready to buy because of what they've already found within your marketing content; other times, leads are still making their decision, and need clarification on something they've read or seen. When your sales team can anticipate different scenarios based on the various customer journeys that marketing facilitates, they'll be able to fill the gaps in customer needs and close the sale. Considering How Leads Want To Be Contacted Another way that a marketing-oriented mindset can help your sales reps is the matter of contact methods. Some customers like to be contacted via email; others prefer a phone call; still others prefer texting. Those preferences can be recorded and cataloged by marketing software that lets customers decide how they want to be contacted... and wise sales reps will take those preferences into account when reaching out to leads. Valuing Customer-Focused Content While marketing team members must understand the value of touting benefits over features, salespeople must also be aware of and subscribe to this focus. The average customer doesn't care about all the features built into your product; rather, they want to know how your product will benefit them in tangible ways. It can be easy for your sales reps to fall into a pattern of explaining features during customer interactions when they should take a marketing approach and focus on benefits. Make sure they're asking leads the right questions, and then describing how your product can address concerns, solve problems, and fill needs. (Getting quantitative data on which web pages and lead magnets get the highest traffic volume can be a good starting point.) At the end of the day, when your marketing and sales teams are willing to share, and even think like each other to some extent, they'll end up winning together — and your entire organization will benefit. Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in a new book called Sales & Marketing Alignment. 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.  The top of the sales funnel offers a clear objective for marketers: make prospects aware of the brand, and convince them they should learn more about it. The bottom of the funnel is equally clear-cut: close the deal with an interested lead.
But what about the middle of the funnel (MOFU)? For many sales and marketing teams, the middle-of-the-funnel stage is a nebulous "gray area" where the division of responsibilities between the two departments becomes murky. As a result, leads get stuck in no-man's-land. In fact, of all three of the core stages in the sales funnel, the middle may be the most challenging to navigate. The good news is, with some careful planning and good communication, the middle of the funnel can be a powerful driver of sales, instead of a frustrating bottleneck. And at the end of the day, a lot of MOFU success comes down to effective collaboration. Key Collaboration Items For Middle-of-Funnel Content Let's talk about some key MOFU items your sales and marketing teams should collaborate on — items that can move the needle on your metrics in the bottom part of the funnel. These include:
The bottom line is, marketers are responsible for creating great content and automation, and salespeople can provide insights as to how leads decide whether to buy. Sales and marketing should have a "symbiotic relationship" when it comes to the middle of the funnel stage. When marketers focus on their role of communicating benefits to leads — from the first moment they make contact via a social post, ad, or landing page — and sales reps focus on closing deals with messaging aligned to marketing materials, the overall result will be more leads in the pipeline and more sales being made. All Leads Are Not Created Equal It's also important to keep in mind that not all leads are created equal when it comes to the middle of the funnel. It's important for your sales and marketing teams to be in alignment about what constitutes a valuable lead, and how sales should approach different touch points with leads. What motivates one client to buy from your brand may be totally different from what motivates another. For example, one lead may be in the early stages of researching solutions to a problem. They may interact with your middle-of-funnel content, but not be anywhere close to actually purchasing from your brand. On the other hand, a second lead may have already researched solutions for some time and is re-engaging with your content with the intent of eventually making a purchase. Obviously, the second type of lead will be more immediately valuable to your company. With that in mind, it's important that your sales and marketing teams work together to identify which leads are higher-value, and how to most effectively approach them after an interaction. At the same time, they should develop strategies to nurture marketing-qualified leads, and eventually nudge them into becoming sales-qualified. Designing diverse MOFU content is often the best way to cover all your bases. You want content that will convince eager leads to take the next step (maybe data-driven content like white papers and e-books), as well as easily digestible content to keep your brand top of mind for leads who are still on the fence (infographics, blog posts, and so forth). It's Not Just About Numbers, It's About Purpose Having well-defined lead segments and value scores will help make the entire lead generation process more purposeful during the middle-of-funnel stage. Having a large volume of leads is great... unless most of those leads are unlikely to become paying customers. It's much better to have 50 leads in your pipeline that are likely to buy vs. having 500 leads who will almost certainly not do business with you. The middle of the funnel is where you can start weeding out leads with low value and focus on the leads that are most likely to go somewhere. CTAs in your content can become great "lead filters." For instance, a financial services company may publish a blog post with a CTA to sign up for their free newsletter. When leads do so, they may be classified as sales-qualified leads, which will trigger outreach from one of your sales reps. It's true that the middle of the sales funnel can pose some challenges in terms of which department should take action, and which actions they should take. But with a purposeful, deliberate approach, and a lot of good collaboration, you can create a framework for success in terms of your content and customer interactions. And when it's all said and done, you'll be in prime position to enjoy the benefits of improved sales performance. Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in a new book called Sales & Marketing Alignment. 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.  The sales and marketing world revolves around analyzing numbers and hitting targets. So it's no wonder that one of the most common complaints you'll hear is they need more leads to meet quota.
However, is it really that simple? The fact is, more leads may not always equal more conversions. It's vital that your sales and marketing teams work together to develop an intentional, comprehensive plan for developing quality content and delivering appropriate follow-up for leads. Let's talk about both sides of the "lead issues" coin — namely, too few leads and too many leads — and see how quality content can solve many of the problems your teams may be facing. Too Few Leads = Lack of Relevant Content It's easy to think of scenarios in which a lack of relevant content results in a need for more leads for the sales team. Take digital content as an example. Far too often, the marketing team creates websites and other digital content with zero input from the sales team. When you think about it, that's an incredible missed opportunity! Sales reps often have valuable insights into how customers interact with marketing materials. They know their specific goals and interests. And they understand common objections that may arise from the outset of their time in the funnel. Why wouldn't marketing want to tap into that kind of resource? When sales and marketing work together to create top-of-the-funnel content, it almost inevitably leads to more leads. Here are just a few of the ways sales and marketing teams can create synergy in terms of content creation:
Bring Sales and Marketing Together Granted, mileage may vary on these tactics, depending on the nature of your business and consumer base. But the point is, whatever content marketing strategies you implement will be improved (perhaps dramatically) by bringing your sales and marketing teams together. It's vital that there is a consistent process of collaboration in place. There must be a clear consensus about the nature of your buyers' journeys. And that content is intentionally mapped to meet the needs of your buyers each step of the way. The result of all this planning and collaboration will be a solid content strategy that brings, not only more leads, but better-qualified leads into your sales funnel. Too Many Leads = Lack of Targeted Content At first glance, it may seem obvious that the more leads a sales team has in its pipeline, the greater its chances of converting those leads into paying customers. The problem is, it may not be that simple, especially if the company's lead generation strategy has replaced quality with quantity. Actually, investing in quantity over quality can result in a lot of wasted time and effort. In many cases, brands face this issue because their content, though relevant to consumer needs and desires, is not targeted enough to weed out the non-qualified leads from the qualified ones. For example, imagine a company that offers chartered flights starting at $5,000. There is a market for this type of offering, whether in the corporate world, the sports world, or some other sector. But what if the price is never mentioned in TOFU or even MOFU content? The company may generate a lot of interest from small business owners, for instance — but how many of them would be willing to pay a minimum of $5,000 per flight? It's easy to see how more leads in this case may not translate to a better lead generation strategy. In fact, the company could end up wasting thousands of dollars on ads that only bring non-qualified leads into the funnel. Again, Bring Sales and Marketing Together Here again, cooperation between your sales and marketing teams can help prevent (or at least mitigate) this problem. Your two departments can work together to make sure the right leads are targeted. For example:
At the end of the day, creating quality content through consistent collaboration will help you generate enough leads to keep your sales pipeline full, but not so many that you end up wasting time on non-qualified ones. Your teams will become more productive and efficient, and your sales performance as a whole will improve. Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in a new book called Sales & Marketing Alignment. 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.  Many sales reps and marketers truly believe in their products. They are convinced that the product is great, and they're also convinced that customers will love it. However, there's often a disconnect between the reasons they are so excited about the product and the reasons customers may be interested in it. That disconnect can lead to missed opportunities, lost sales, and a lot of head-scratching on the part of your team members. "Why aren't we selling more of this product?" they may wonder. "What are we missing?" In many cases, the root cause of the problem is a failure to use benefits-centered messaging when interacting with prospects and leads. The Difference Between Features and Benefits When we talk about "benefits-centered messaging," what are we actually referring to? Simply put, it's a type of storytelling that's relevant to and compelling for your audience. It's not focused on the what or the how of your product — rather, it articulates the why of it: why would your leads want to buy what you're offering? Why will it make their life easier, simpler, or better? Benefits-centered messaging is much different from features-centered messaging. For example, imagine a marketing message focused on the features of a new smartphone. Perhaps it discusses how advanced the camera is, or how many pixels will be in your photos. The emphasis is on the technical aspect of the product, the what and how. Now take that same scenario, and imagine a benefits-centered message for the smartphone camera. Maybe the message would be something like: "Capture your memories and relive them more clearly than ever before." The focus has shifted away from the technical specs, and onto why customers should be interested in the camera — in this case, because it will help them better remember precious moments for years to come. The Two Paths To Purchase At the core of every purchase decision is at least one of two powerful motivators: fear and desire. People either want to avoid pain or achieve a state of being better than the one they currently are in. All products and services are designed to help the buyer avoid the pain they fear or obtain what they desire. Therefore, the job of your sales and marketing teams is to tell a story about how your product will help customers meet one of those goals (or sometimes both). You could even replace the word "benefits" in the phrase benefits-centered messaging with "positive outcomes" — the meaning remains exactly the same. What's the point? Dumping a list of features onto your website or other forms of marketing content probably won't get you the best results. On the other hand, identifying what your customers truly want and need, and creating messaging that guides them to your solution, is what will help you get wins consistently. With that in mind, try looking at your product through the eyes of the customer by asking yourself questions like:
Remember, the same product may hold out different benefits for different people. So while it's important to know what a product does, it's just as important to understand what a product can do for the customer. How To Beef Up Your Benefits-Centered Messaging It's important for your company to have a solid, well-articulated identity. In other words, you need to answer the question: "What do we do?" Now, the challenge is to build on that foundation by answering the question: "What positive outcomes can our company help bring about?" In terms of interactions with your customers, there are two main ways to do just that: 1. Communicate Benefits With Your Marketing Copy A lot of company websites out there start almost every sentence on their home page with "we" or "our." For instance:
The problem with these statements is that, frankly, just about any competitor could say the same thing. Experience, commitment to customer service, hard work — these are simply the price of entry in most industries. They're not differentiators in any meaningful way. At the end of the day, people don't buy from your company because of your expertise or technical abilities; they buy from you because of the benefits you offer, and their trust that you'll deliver on those benefits. Therefore, your entire website (and any other marketing materials you publish) should speak to and serve the needs of your target audience. Don't brag about how fantastic your company is; rather, make it clear how you've made — and are making — your customers' lives better. 2. Center Your Conversations Around Positive Outcomes Using benefits-centered messaging is especially important when conversing with leads. Many sales reps fall into the trap of extolling the virtues of their product without seeking to understand what specific fear or desire is motivating the person across from them. On the other hand, asking questions and truly listening to the answers can help salespeople to steer the conversation in the right direction, and ultimately toward a purchase. Consider using the following questions (or variations on these questions) to better understand your prospects:
It's amazing how many sales reps don't ask these questions — and yet, getting the answers is often the key that will help you convince the customer of your solution's value to them! In summary: don't focus so much on product features. Instead, think like your customers, and focus on the benefits they're looking for. If your sales and marketing teams practice this approach, you're virtually guaranteed to see improved results from their efforts. Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in a new book called Sales & Marketing Alignment. 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.  Do you know exactly who your ideal customer is? Have you developed accurate customer personas? Many company leaders may say something like: "Of course we do! We sell to tech companies." But do they understand which people have a stake in the decision-making process at one of those tech company clients? Who actually makes the final decision?
As you can tell from this simple example, staying at the surface level of who a customer is inevitably results in knowledge gaps for marketers and salespeople alike. Perhaps just as bad is when everyone on an integrated team has completely different ideas about what their target consumer looks like. (For instance, are "tech companies" SaaS companies or IT service providers... or both?) Without having clearly defined and detailed customer personas to help you focus your efforts, misalignment is all but guaranteed. Put another way: you may reach out to the wrong people, with the wrong messaging, while promoting the wrong product. On the other hand, when you have that clear-cut customer persona in front of you, everyone on your team will be in a much better position to succeed. Your sales reps will understand how and why your customers interact with your brand. Plus, they may even be able to answer customer questions before they ask them. And your marketers will be able to craft highly targeted and compelling content — content that generates conversions. The Groundwork for Creating a Hyper-Specific Customer Persona There is a basic three-step system that will help you narrow down which customers you should pursue in the first place. Here is what it involves:
Why Flexibility Is Key At times, your ideal buyer may need something you didn't foresee. Even if the discovery initially catches you off-guard, once you have that information in hand, you can use it to pivot your strategy and create more effective marketing materials and sales pitches. Keep a close eye on how your marketing campaigns perform after you've created a new customer persona. Are you generating as many leads as expected? Are those leads converting, or is there a bottleneck somewhere in the sales funnel? Don't be afraid to go back to the drawing board if it's obvious that your messaging or offering doesn't align with customer needs. You may be selling to the wrong people, or may just need to tweak your offering to resolve a more specific problem than you'd anticipated. Of course, communication between your sales and marketing teams is absolutely imperative if you want to maintain your flexibility. Be especially sensitive to the risk points that leads may express concern over — your ability to sell your offerings to them depends on your ability to address those risks. Paint a Detailed Picture of Your Customer Personas When you begin to develop customer personas, you want to make it as realistic and detailed as possible, even to the point of choosing a stock photo to go along with the fictional name you've selected. A good starting point may be thinking about one of your current customers who fits the mold of an ideal buyer. Perhaps you can ask your sales team about them, or even interview them personally. Then, you'll be able to leverage your knowledge of that customer, along with some historical data, to create a persona that effectively mirrors real life. Spend some time imagining your customer persona's profile and general characteristics. As you develop the persona, drill down as far as you can go in terms of personal demographics. For instance, you may want to think about distinctive elements like:
Of course, there's no need to go overboard with your customer persona: you're a salesperson, not a Russian novelist! Still, the more relatable you make it, the easier it will be for your sales and marketing team to identify with and adapt to your target consumer. It certainly takes some effort to identify and define your ideal buyer. But at the end of the day, doing so is a major step toward improving your company's sales performance and forging long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationships. Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in a new book called Sales & Marketing Alignment. 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.  Any business leader worth their salt wants the company's sales and marketing teams to function at peak performance. However, this won't happen automatically; the leader needs to be a leader in several vital areas before the teams will follow. Buy-in starts at the top, and management's words and deeds are what set the tone for the rest of the organization.
With that in mind, here are six key ways in which leaders can contribute to improved sales and marketing performance from their team members: 1. Show Respect This is a fundamental step in optimizing your team's performance... one which sadly goes neglected more often than not. It's important to understand that your marketers and sales reps are "subject-matter experts" when it comes to prospects' pain points, concerns, and values. They have experience in offering targeted solutions that guide leads through the sales funnel and toward a final purchase decision with your brand. That experience — that expertise, hard work, and passion — must be respected by leadership. Make it clear to both your sales and marketing teams that you understand how they are directly contributing to the company's mission, vision, goals, and ultimate success. Vocalize your appreciation for their efforts. By simply filling this basic human need — the need to feel respected and valued — you're already setting your teams on the right path, and motivating each member to give their best, even toward the most ambitious revenue goals. 2. Support Teamwork Do everything you can to push back against collaboration's silent killer: the "silo mentality." Sales and marketing experts may be able to accomplish quite a bit apart from each other, but that pales in comparison to what they can accomplish together. For that reason, aligning your sales and marketing teams toward a common vision and goals should be a top priority on your leadership agenda. Set up processes that promote communication and collaboration between the two teams, such as regular interdepartmental meetings. Communicate with team leaders in joint strategy sessions. Do what you can to walk the walk, and your managers and team members will fall in line. 3. Ask for Feedback (and really listen to it) What if your departments aren't performing to expectations? The quickest and most effective way to uncover sales and marketing roadblocks is to seek feedback from your teams. Ask questions, and pay close attention to the answers. It may be enough to seek feedback from team leaders, but at times you'll need to get feedback from the entire team. Your sales reps in particular can help you understand what prospects truly want, and why deals may not be closing as expected. These team members are "on the front lines" when it comes to customer interactions, and they can function as the de facto eyes and ears of your organization. Be willing to tap into their knowledge and experience, especially when contemplating major strategic changes. 4. Promote and Drive Ongoing, Integrated Training Interdepartmental collaboration is one vital aspect of proper alignment between sales and marketing. For most modern organizations, integrated training on sales and marketing tools is another. It's vital that your sales reps and marketers understand how to use such tools effectively — whether it's a new lead database, a CRM, or an email automation platform. They also need to understand how their activities with these tools play into the bigger picture. For example, when exactly should a marketing-qualified lead (MQL) transition into a sales-qualified lead (SQL)? And what steps need to take place in order to implement and document that transition? In this regard, it may be best to remove training silos within sales and marketing and bring the teams together for integrated learning sessions. 5. Focus on Results and Watch the Numbers As you implement alignment between sales and marketing, you'll be asking team members to track specific KPIs for the sales and marketing processes over which they've taken ownership. When it comes to these numbers, balance will be needed on your part: you'll certainly never want to fall into the trap of micromanagement, which is both inefficient and counterproductive. At the same time, as a leader it's your responsibility to regularly and methodically review these KPIs within the context of the company's larger goals. By keeping an eye on key metrics, you'll be able to spot any bottlenecks (or potential bottlenecks) in your sales and marketing strategy. You'll also gain insight into which team members could benefit most from constructive feedback. At the end of the day, it's important for sales and marketing leaders to remember that they're working toward an overarching objective, and are getting consistent support and direction from proactive leadership. 6. Celebrate Wins... and Have Fun! In many ways, sales and marketing teams can be compared to sports teams. For instance, both work toward common goals. In order to be effective, both require hard work from individual members, along with a clear understanding of their specific roles. And both can achieve visible, measurable success ("points scored," if you will). There are many ways to "score points" in sales and marketing. No matter how you keep track of those points, it's important to occasionally step back and celebrate the wins — all the times your company has experienced some type of success from the efforts of your team members. Take advantage of these opportunities to acknowledge the work of your team, and express your appreciation for them. There will always be room for improvement; but taking a moment to look at what you are doing right is great for team morale, and a driver for future success. When it's all said and done, sales and marketing performance has a direct relation to qualities that any leader can develop: understanding, respect, empathy, consistency, and trust. By holding the vision of sales and marketing alignment, seeking feedback, and demonstrating your respect and appreciation for the efforts of each team member, you'll undoubtedly see improvement in each department's performance. Momentum will gradually build, and your company will be set up for sustainable success for years to come. Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in a new book called Sales & Marketing Alignment. 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.  If you've read our previous posts on this subject, then you know why sales and marketing alignment is such an important component of sustainable business success. Perhaps the main question you're wondering now is: To what extent are my sales and marketing teams aligned right now?
It's important to understand how your business is currently doing in this regard. After all, if you don't know where you are, then you'll never get to where you're going! With that in mind, here's a checklist to determine just how aligned your two departments really are, and how far they may have to go: The Sales and Marketing Alignment Checklist Company Leadership
How Is Your Company Doing With Sales and Marketing Alignment and Integration? After reviewing the checklist above, do you see specific areas in which your company could improve? Perhaps top-level leadership could take a more proactive approach to the alignment and integration process; or maybe team managers need some more encouragement to schedule collaboration time with their counterparts in the other department. Whatever the case may be, this checklist can be a great starting point to figure out which areas deserve the most attention. It's really hard to overstate how important alignment and integration are to your organization's long-term success. These are key drivers for growth and productivity across the board, for both your sales and marketing teams. When your teams are well-integrated, and in alignment, they'll communicate and collaborate effectively, come up with innovative solutions together, and ultimately engage with customers in the most effective way, at the right time, and with the perfect message. Alignment Creates Momentum Simply put: sales & marketing alignment creates momentum. That's why all the major stakeholders within your organization need to work towards this goal. From your executive suite down, every member of your team must rally around this concept that sales and marketing are not separate entities, but two halves of the same whole. While internal conflict can kill momentum and stifle performance, the momentum generated by sales and marketing alignment will continue to build with each passing day, and add exceptional value for your company. At the end of the day, sales and marketing alignment and integration are huge factors in improving your business' overall sales performance. So review this checklist, compare the items with what your company is currently doing, and look for ways to bridge any gaps. You and your team members will be happy you did so! Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in a new book called Sales & Marketing Alignment. 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.  In the business world, there are two types of leaders. The first one says: "Do what I tell you to do." This type of leader expects his or her team to toe the line, keep in step with the organization's game plan, and deliver results... whether those team members feel supported in this endeavor or not.
The second type of leader says: "Do what I'm doing." This kind of leader sets the tone for the rest of the team, not just by words, but by actions. They walk the talk; they lead by example. How does this relate to sales and marketing integration? Simply put, sales and marketing integration starts at the top. If leadership is fully committed to integrating the two departments and proves it through word and deed, mid-level managers and team members will follow the path that's been forged. The big question is: Which type of leader are you? Your answer to that question can make all the difference when it comes to your company's success (or lack thereof) in creating synergy between the two departments. Let's talk about why sales and marketing integration really does start at the top, and some important ways you can support this goal in your role as a leader. It All Starts With a Leader's Mindset The seed of successful sales and marketing integration is the right attitude. Leaders need to recognize within themselves that this should be a top priority for their organization. They also need to understand that this integration process isn't going to happen overnight. Just as it may take months or even years for a person to meet their fitness goals, it may take quite a while for a company to achieve a healthy synergy between the two teams. Leaders who have a sustained commitment to this new paradigm are willing to provide consistent support for their team members. They're willing to "hold the vision" for sales and marketing integration, and fight the inertia that could cause some stakeholders to revert to old ways. The right mindset is the first key to unlocking the power of an integrated approach. Leaders Can Break Down Internal Barriers There may be internal pushback on the idea (or at least the implementing) of sales and marketing integration. Sometimes leaders have to overcome a deeply entrenched negative viewpoint about one department or the other... and sometimes those negative thoughts come from the leaders themselves! For instance, because of a leader's background, he or she may be inclined to think that one department is more important than the other, or should take more of the blame when revenues dip. In some cases, the hardest barriers to break down may come from your marketing and sales managers. They may be reluctant to share metrics and projections with a team they've always considered their "rivals." They may be afraid that they'll be called to task if something goes wrong. It's up to you as a leader to assuage their (sometimes legitimate) concerns, and build that bridge between the two teams. If you build the bridge the right way, it will bear the weight of everyone in both departments. Follow-Through Begins at the Top Once the mindset has shifted and the barriers have been broken down, leaders must consistently and repeatedly commit to the strategy and processes that make integration successful. They need to give the time, financial support, and freedom to their teams that are necessary for developing truly integrated strategies. It's not just about a joint meeting once every couple of weeks; it's about open lines of communication that feed a genuinely collaborative workflow. Once again, leaders who "walk the talk" will see the best results. They need to proactively manage this paradigm shift, even if they can't oversee every detail. This could involve coordinating and conducting joint meetings, or having frequent one-on-one sessions with team leaders. Put another way: if you want the vision to take root, you'll have to do a little bit of digging yourself! Actionable Steps You Can Take What are some practical ways you can support an integration initiative? Here are three specific steps to take: 1. Evaluate your own attitudes and behavior. It may be challenging to take a long, hard look at the person in the mirror, but it's often the first step towards accomplishing your goal. Ask yourself the tough questions about your own attitude towards either the sales or marketing team (or both). For instance: do you or your colleagues view either team as lazy or negligent? Do you support sales and marketing in theory, but without providing practical support? Here are some other probing questions to ask yourself:
2. Practice empathy with your sales and marketing teams. Put another way: spend some time walking in their shoes. Listen to them — and listen to understand, not to respond. Explore reasons for any barriers between the teams, and analyze how each team (and each professional on the team) adds value to the company. This type of empathy is at the heart of any successful sales and marketing alignment, in part because it allows you as the leader to put each team member in the right role for them, and therefore set up both teams for success. 3. Build bridges, not fences. It's all too easy to play the blame game when adversity strikes. However, as the leader, you must be alert to channel energy towards solution-oriented goals, not finger-pointing. Help both teams see collaboration as a non-negotiable priority. Work with your sales and marketing managers to create integrated strategies and processes with clear owners. Create a working environment where root problems are attacked, instead of fellow employees. At the end of the day, whether your company enjoys effective sales and marketing alignment depends to a large extent on whether you, as the leader, are doing your part. If you are, you can realistically expect to see gradual improvement in team integration, and better sales and marketing performance across the board. Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in a new book called Sales & Marketing Alignment. 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.  It's no big secret in the business world that sales and marketing don't always play nice with each other. Usually, this doesn't come from a place of malice. Both teams are working hard to fulfill their roles in the organization. They may even be rooting for each other to succeed. But when barriers to communication and collaboration have been established for a long time, sales and marketing alignment is non-existent. This scenario can be difficult to overcome.
However, the results of sales and marketing alignment are well worth any effort expended. Sales and marketing integration supercharges the efforts that both departments put into generating and nurturing leads. Ultimately, it offers a competitive advantage to the organization as a whole. The teams that work together really do win together. An Example of How Sales and Marketing Alignment Can Pay Off How can sales and marketing integration drive results in the real world? Let's use the following scenario as just one example: Imagine that the sales and marketing teams of Company X are in a meeting. During the meeting, the sales director discloses an obstacle that has prevented several reps from closing sales. Many leads want to hear from actual customers about their experience with Company X, instead of salespeople or online content. In another organization, the sales team would just have to navigate that challenge on their own. But Company X enjoys sales and marketing alignment. Therefore, their marketing team can come up with a solution: an ambassador program that features enthusiastic customers who are willing to talk to prospects about the benefits of working with Company X. As you can tell from the foregoing example, sales and marketing alignment isn't just a corporate buzzword that gets thrown around a lot. When implemented properly, it leads to better outcomes in the real world. With that being said, the question now becomes: How can a business get the alignment process started? Here are five key steps to keep in mind: 1. Become Aware of the Problem As the old saying goes: "The first step in solving a problem is recognizing there is one." Sales and marketing leadership must internalize the fact that siloed teams result in less-than-optimal results. There must be an acknowledgment that each team, and the organization as a whole, will benefit from an integrated approach to the sales and marketing funnel. Even if your company has always done things a certain way, that doesn't necessarily mean things have always been done the best way. Strategies that heavily rely on "winging it," accidentally stumbling across workable solutions, or simply "going with the flow" without a clear plan in place are not sustainable in the long run. Do these strategies describe your company's approach to sales and marketing? Then it's time to acknowledge that change is needed. 2. Accept the Need To Shift Acknowledging a problem is one thing. Actually doing something about it is something else entirely. Sales and marketing leadership must accept the responsibility to take charge of the integration process. There should be consistent advocacy for alignment, both from management and from team members. One of the biggest pivots your business may need to make involves communication between the two departments. There should be a constant, free flow of information between the sales and marketing teams. For example: does the marketing team consult sales during the development of a new campaign? Does sales understand the unique selling proposition (USP) that marketing emphasizes for new leads? It may take some time to implement the shift toward integration fully. Strategic thinking, planning, process development and mapping, iteration and action will be required to achieve the ultimate goal of alignment. If leadership forges the path, the teams will follow. 3. Meet Buyers Where They Are on Their Buying Journey One of the main reasons for pursuing sales and marketing alignment is to facilitate each buyer's journey toward a purchase decision. It's no surprise that different buyers take different paths as they contemplate an offer. Some make decisions based on pricing, others on product quality, still others on support infrastructure. Some leads may want to "de-risk" their decisions based on direct interaction with current customers. Others may be convinced by reviewing simple case studies or product overviews. The point is, sales and marketing alignment should be designed to accommodate the unique needs of the individual buyer. Both teams should feel empowered to adjust their messaging and approach to address the prospect's concerns. 4. Support Lead Movement Through the Sales Funnel Sales and marketing integration should be focused on effectively moving a lead from one stage of the sales funnel to the next. There's no place for possessiveness or "territorial disputes" between the two departments. Teams that are in alignment with each other will understand what constitutes a marketing-qualified lead vs. a sales-qualified lead, and when and how the hand-off should take place. Leadership has to clearly define what guidelines each team should follow, without taking away the flexibility required to handle one-off cases. The more intentional a company's sales and marketing strategies are, the more rewarding the results will be for customers, teams, and the entire organization. 5. Measure Results, Iterate, and Evolve As your teams come into alignment, you should be able to measure the difference in performance compared to your previous approach. Sales and marketing key performance indicators (KPIs) are the "scorecard" that measures the success of your efforts. Regularly reviewing this scorecard can help you identify areas in which alignment is progressing well, along with areas that need continued attention. The combination of quantitative and qualitative data (e.g., hard metrics and anecdotal evidence) can help both teams see their role from a new perspective. Perhaps most importantly, seeing what they can achieve through alignment will motivate team members to stay on that path and reap even more success. In summary, sales and marketing alignment can be a powerful driver for business growth. It offers your company an edge over the competition and may contribute to innovative solutions for challenges that arise. If you implement the five steps discussed above and promote a culture of interdepartmental collaboration, you're all but guaranteed to see improved sales performance as a result. Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in a new book called Sales & Marketing Alignment. 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.  It's an all-too-common story in today's business world: A successful company (we'll call it Company X) starts to see its influx of customers dwindle. Year after year, there's a small but significant decline in revenue. As a result, the CEO of Company X puts pressure on the sales director and CMO to turn things around. However, without a clear sales and marketing strategy in place, a ton of effort is expended without seeing a big return on investment.
All the while, Company X is still offering superior products compared to its competitors. Also, it's still providing exceptional customer service to existing clients. So what's the core issue that led to such a problematic situation? In many cases, it's a failure to take into account three key sales and marketing lessons, namely:
Let's dig into each one of these sales and marketing lessons. We'll examine how taking leadership of each one can positively impact your business in ways both big and small. Lesson #1: Sales and Marketing Teams Must Adapt Change can be difficult for anyone. That includes marketers and salespeople, especially if they've been used to doing things a certain way for several years. For instance: your marketing team may be used to throwing money at Google Ads every month or uploading two unconnected social media posts a day. However, even when the results no longer justify the process, they're reluctant to change the process. Or maybe your sales team is getting a bunch of leads that want some more info on your product, but aren't quite ready to sign on the dotted line. Instead of gently probing to see what those prospects really need and why they're considering your business in the first place, your team members' first instinct is to tell them, "Call me when you're ready to buy." Obviously, there are some key opportunities in these and other scenarios that need to be addressed. But any solution is going to require adaptation. Your marketers may need to shift their perspective to building a fan base rather than distributing ads. Similarly, your sales reps may need to lean into lead nurturing instead of just taking down orders. The reality is the sales and marketing of yesteryear cannot effectively compete within the hyper-strategic, systematized digital age in which we live. Companies must be willing to adapt. Or they must accept the fact that they'll eventually become irrelevant. On the other hand, if you become a change agent for your teams in terms of strategy or process, then they will almost certainly be able to perform at a higher level than before. Lesson #2: Sales and Marketing Are Experiencing Disruption Two major changes have taken place in the world of sales and marketing recently. Let's briefly discuss each of them: 1. Buyers will research you before you ever speak with them. Today's online buyers really have an embarrassment of riches in terms of the information that's available to them. They can easily visit your website and your social media profiles. However, they can just as easily see those of your top competitors. And they may stumble across your competition before even thinking about initiating contact with one of your team members. Of course, the digital world is also saturated with spam, clickbait, scams, and automatic opt-ins. And buyers have become ever more discerning in terms of avoiding online dangers and annoyances. So, the task that's laid before your marketing team is to make your company as attractive as possible to prospects. At the same time, you must distance yourself from both legitimate competitors and scammers. 2. Competition has intensified, and adding value is mandatory. Once you've effectively set up your company's digital presence to be found by interested prospects, the next big step is to add value to their customer journey. The specific value you're adding (whether it's a downloadable white paper, an online quote estimator, or even a free consultation) will obviously depend on the nature of your business. The point is it's essential to offer value to your leads from the very beginning of their entry into your funnel. And you must continue to do so as you guide them through each stage of their journey. You can be sure that your competition will seek to add value to the consumer base. However, if you do the work, you'll be able to add more value and win more attention. Lesson #3: Sales and Marketing Need Each Other (and Effective Leadership) It's easy for sales and marketing to play the "blame game" with each other when things aren't going right — and especially if a "silo mentality" has crept into the company culture. However, whether your goal is to right the ship or to increase already healthy revenues, it's vital that sales and marketing coordinate their efforts around a unified strategy. In this regard, two elements are indispensable: 1. Good Communication Leaders have to ensure that there's a constant, open dialogue between sales and marketing. It may take regular interdepartmental meetings to get everyone on the same page (and keep them there). But it's well worth the effort. 2. Clearly Defined Roles Some of the greatest friction that occurs between sales and marketing is in that transitional phase of the customer journey, when a marketing-qualified lead transforms into a sales-qualified lead. The good news is you can greatly reduce (or possibly even eliminate) that friction by developing and then communicating clearly defined roles for each team. In general, your marketing team should be tasked with providing clear info to prospects, explaining the values and benefits of your product/service, and then outlining their next steps for working with sales. Once the lead has been handed off to sales, they should be able to answer questions, respond to concerns, and provide instructions on how the customer can get started. By working together in this way, with the help of active, unifying leadership, your sales and marketing teams can become a solid "one-two punch" for achieving your goals. If you and your team take these three key sales and marketing lessons to heart, then you'll be in a much better position to reverse the trend of declining sales. Or, if your sales are already robust, you'll be able to improve them even further. And if you're willing to do the hard work, you'll almost certainly see a major ROI for your trouble. Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in a new book called Sales & Marketing Alignment. 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.  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. |
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