Sharing is Caring: How Your Sales and Marketing Teams Can Win Together

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.