The Sales Placemat: Setting the Table For Your Sales & Marketing Teams

In a formal dinner, each guest often has a placemat under their plate and utensils when they sits down to eat. Most people don't give the placemat a second thought. However, it does serve a significant function: it prevents the table from getting stained with food or dented by silverware. 

We've referred to the "sales placemat" in previous articles. Like a literal placemat, many organizations don't think much about this visual framework for streamlining the sales funnel. However, the sales placemat performs an important function in a growing business: it protects both the marketing and sales teams from accidentally damaging the company without realizing it. Before we talk about how and why that's the case, let's define what we mean by "sales placemat."

What Exactly is a "Sales Placemat"?

The sales placemat is just a visual way to represent the entirety of a company's sales funnel for a particular customer persona, along with the matching roles and procedures that help to accomplish business goals in each stage of the funnel.

What a sales placemat may look like can be described as follows and is pictured below.

• On the far left side is an image of the sales funnel, divided into its three main parts: top of funnel, middle of funnel, and bottom of funnel.
• To the right of the funnel are three main columns: Roles & Responsibilities, Sales Process, and KPIs/Performance Management.
• Each column contains rows underneath the heading that outline what needs to be done or measured during each funnel stage. For instance, the Roles & Responsibilities column details whether sales or marketing needs to be involved in certain tasks at the top of the funnel; Sales Process may indicate the desired direction of the customer journey, along with key milestones along the way; and KPIs/Performance Management will list the metrics that the sales and/or marketing teams need to use to measure success.

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Of course, companies can customize their sales placemat according to their specific needs and circumstances. But the point is that each business should have some kind of placemat on hand to help organize and streamline their efforts.

Develop a Sales Placemat Through Sales and Marketing Collaboration

It goes without saying that the key to developing an effective sales placemat is collaboration between sales and marketing. There's no room for a "siloed mentality" here. There needs to be an open, running dialogue between key stakeholders on both teams on a variety of items, such as:

• What the typical customer's journey looks like
• The responsibilities of marketing at the top of the funnel
• When and where sales should enter the picture
• Which tactics work best for engaging and converting prospects into leads, and then leads into customers
• Which platforms should be prioritized in terms of marketing campaigns

As you can see, there's a lot of room for discussion and a critical need for mutual agreement on key aspects of the sales placemat. With that in mind, it may be wise to schedule several meetings over the course of a few weeks (or even months) to hash out the details. Keep regular check-ins between sales and marketing leadership at the top of your (and their) agenda. Continue to be the champion for the sales placemat until it has fully developed into a workable version that both teams can use.

The Benefits of the Sales Placemat for Sales and Marketing

You don't have to look too far to discern some key advantages that a sales placemat can confer upon your marketers and sales reps. Here are just a few key benefits you'll likely see:

• More clarity on the duties and borders of different roles. Without the sales placemat, marketers may think that their only job is to promote the company by crafting content that highlights value and appeals to prospects. Sales reps may think that they should just sit back and wait for marketing to send them warm leads. In most cases, though, marketers and sales reps have to "meet in the middle" — without stepping on one another's toes. A well-designed sales placemat can clarify roles for each side, and help them to see exactly what they can and should bring to the table.
• Smoother handoffs. With clearly defined roles in place, "handoffs" from marketing to sales will be much smoother. For instance, both teams will know the triggers that signal a marketing-qualified lead has developed into a sales-qualified lead. Both teams will also understand how the transition should look from the customer's perspective.
• Greater emphasis on the right metrics. In terms of performance management, the sales placemat can be an excellent tool for helping both teams focus on the right metrics — in other words, the metrics that most accurately gauge the effectiveness of current tactics, and most directly relate to overall company success. With those KPIs in clear focus, managers on both sides can coach their team members to individual and collective goals that are not only specific but also truly productive.

At the end of the day, the sales placemat is a powerful framework that can allow your company to "feast" on optimized, integrated sales and marketing strategies without putting a dent in the effectiveness of any department. If you can gain leadership buy-in, champion a collaborative development process, and encourage team members to stick to the guidelines outlined on the placemat, you'll almost certainly see an improvement in your business' overall sales performance.
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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.

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