How Sales and Marketing can Collaborate to Increase Growth

Both Sales and Marketing have the same goal in mind: to secure business and help their firm develop.

A sale is a direct process in which a salesperson speaks with a customer and encourages them to buy a product. This could be done in person, over the phone, or through a digital channel like email or social media. The process could be lengthy, involving several meetings in which the salesperson learns about the customer and their needs, as well as how the product on offer can help address customers’ needs. 

In many ways, the sales game has changed in recent years, but its core is still the same. Face-to-face sales, often known as field sales, still account for 54.5% of the sales force. This is about 71.2% in large organisations.

Marketing is a far more holistic process that aims to raise brand or product awareness among target customers. A marketer will rarely deal with a customer one-on-one. 

The techniques, strategies, and mediums used by the marketing department are nothing like they did even 15 years ago. It is mostly digital, and it includes (but isn't limited to) content marketing, social media marketing (SMM), email marketing, organic traffic and search engine optimisation (SEO), and pay-per-click (PPC) ads; these are all examples of marketing strategies.

What Happens When Sales & Marketing Work Together?

Both Marketing and Sales are crucial in their own right. They are, however, more effective when they work together. There is little doubt that when Sales and Marketing collaborate well, organisations realise significant improvements in key performance metrics: Sales cycles are shorter, market-entry costs and sales costs are lower.

Sales and Marketing alignment can result in a 208% increase in revenue, 38% higher win rates, and 36% higher customer retention. Because of its nature, salespeople can receive first-hand knowledge of customers and their objections to sales — information that would be difficult, if not impossible, to obtain in any other way.

Unfortunately, far too many companies treat Marketing and Sales as different things. This is a serious oversight and lost opportunity because together, they are much more than the sum of their parts. Nothing else comes close to how well they work together.

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How Sales and Marketing can Collaborate to Facilitate Growth?

At best, the sales and marketing teams have long had a strained relationship. However, there are numerous advantages to be had when the two departments collaborate and operate together.

Both Sales and Marketing believe they know everything there is to know about their customers. They don't, however. Marketing understands the consumer from a theoretical and quantitative standpoint, but not from the perspective of the "actual" client.

From a qualitative and relationship standpoint, Sales understands the customer. However, they have no idea how to get the customer's attention. Both of those abilities don't necessarily have to be learnt, but they must be shared. 

So, let’s see how salespeople can collaborate with marketing teams to ensure an upward trajectory.

‍1. Sales Can Help Marketing Better Understand Customers

Sales can assist Marketing in a number of ways. Salespeople have to attend a significant number of meetings in order to fully comprehend the genuine demands of their prospects. As such, salespeople will have enough data to provide useful information to marketers. This gives Marketing not only the information they need to understand what customers want or like about the company’s product/services but also reliable data on the best personas/titles to target.

Salespeople spend all of their time dealing with customers, learning about their problems and what they expect from a company's products and services. As a result, based on firsthand experience, the sales team has a unique perspective on what makes a customer tick.

Marketers can then use this information to develop more customised tactics that target these issues and how the company can solve them. More leads will be generated through marketing efforts if Marketing targets customers' major needs and offers solutions to their challenges at an early stage.

2. Sales Can Give Feedback On Marketing Efforts

It's generally difficult for marketers to determine how well their marketing messages are received. For instance, a salesperson at a company may know that follow-up emails to customers are difficult to send because the company's email had been blocked. This may be due to the prospects receiving too many irrelevant marketing emails, which irritates them. Hence, Sales will know how well the marketing message has been conveyed to customers/prospects.

When the marketing team receives input like this, they will address these critical issues. It's also vital for Sales to provide general feedback on how prospects are responding to marketing messaging to assist marketers in improving their efforts. If the prospect loves the marketing efforts, they'll be much more open to making a sale when they meet with the sales team, so it's a win-win situation for everyone.

Sales feedback also aids Marketing in gaining a better understanding of the value of the marketing channels in use. When Sales conveys to Marketing which leads are the most qualified and why, Marketing will track this back to the lead source and evaluate the overall impact of their marketing channel activities.

3. Awareness of Marketing Content

Another excellent way for Sales to collaborate with Marketing is to be aware of the content that the marketing team is distributing. Sales can work with Marketing to incorporate some of that content into their prospecting or use marketing content as a resource in their mailings in this way. Marketing can also generate more appropriate "leads" that Sales will follow and try to convert. Overall, Marketing and Sales may really help each other out if they work together.

The Bottom Line

Naturally, different talents are required for Sales and Marketing, respectively. That does not, however, imply that they are always separate.  Although they are different divisions within a company, they share the same goal: encouraging leads and prospects to become paid customers. 

Collaboration between Sales and Marketing is no more a luxury, but rather a requirement in today's world.

If you are looking forward to beginning your sales career, we at Juno School of Business invite you to start the journey with us.

In an eight-week interactive online session, we teach all you need to know to begin a successful sales profession (and get hired). Start your application now!