One plus one equals a whole lot more than two when sales and marketing work together. In too many organizations sales and marketing don’t even talk to each other. What a shame and a waste. Cooperation benefits both groups and also increases sales. Companies that have marketing and sales departments that cooperate have increased sales and less stress.
What does each need? Maybe the sales-marketing disconnect occurs because the departments don’t know what each one needs from the other. Marketing needs to know what sales needs from the marketing department. Typically it’s tools to sell. It could be the contacts to get started, a sales kit, a data sheet, or white papers to help customers understand their problems. Sales wants the vision of where the company and industry is going. They want sales leads to flow from anywhere they come from and then get to sales. The sales force needs accurate information that helps them sell what they have to offer.
In return, marketing wants an understanding of what customer critical needs are so it can craft the marketing message throughout the year at trade shows, on the web or in press releases. Sales must tell marketing what customers are concerned with. The sales department is absolutely critical to get the customers’ vision to market. Salespeople should listen for customer information on future business directions that could impact products. What they hear at sales calls and while attending customer symposiums is what marketing wants to hear. Know that it’s part of the sales force’s job to report what they find to marketing. Providing and sharing the right information makes for a much stronger working relationship.
Start talking. The two departments’ open and frequent communication should happen by design. Some companies foster communication by having a Technical Marketing group that functions as a liaison between sales and marketing. Its members are former salespeople who are familiar with the role of salespeople. They attend internal sales staff meetings even though they’re not on the sales team. Other companies have regularly scheduled meetings of marketing and sales groups. At the meetings, they have an open and honest discussion of what is and is not working. What also works is to have informal meetings after the formal meetings. These informal meetings are key to hear valuable information for marketing.
It’s also important to get high level management involved in sales and marketing. High level managers in sales, marketing and manufacturing should meet regularly to review program effectiveness account by account. Policies can also support communication. One marketing vice president’s policy was to require marketing staff to write a trip report about each customer meeting. The report could be an email. The report included meeting attendees, what was discussed and their follow up. Marketing staff sent their reports to all of the salespeople who were involved in the account. That information flow started salespeople emailing marketing about relevant meetings they were having.
Share. Competitive intelligence is critical for marketing as marketers research reports to gather information. Sales departments can add to the information by reporting what they see during sales calls. Leads are critical for sales. Marketing can be proactive in gathering the information that sales needs to sell. Rather than be limited to just gathering names, good marketing departments filter the leads so that the most likely prospects get sales attention. They put the contact information on the company website for easy access. When prospects call marketing, proactive marketers question them about the problem they’re experiencing, what they’ve tried in the past and what their budget is. Then they forward the likely prospects to sales. If a prospect isn’t ready to buy, marketing can enter the contact information into a database and still keep in touch. Sending relevant information from time to time will build the relationship and prepare the prospect when he is ready to buy.
It’s a lucky salesperson who says, "My marketing department sells for me." It’s a successful marketer who says, "My sales department works with me." Who says business has to rely on luck? Start your sales and marketing dialogue today.
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