ChicExecs Senior VP of Elevate, Lydia Vargo, shares five ways to streamline the relationship between sales and markting on Forbes blog. Enjoy this highlight from the piece.
It can be hard to realign sales and marketing if you haven’t been doing it from the start, but it is possible. Your two teams should work together in a streamlined, intentional process that eliminates miscommunication. The result is a better customer experience that can bring in more happy, paying customers.
Are you ready to minimize internal confusion and delight your customers? Follow these five steps to start forging a seamless relationship between marketing and sales.
1. Keep Teams In Close Proximity
Do you have sales on one floor and marketing on another? Many businesses organize their teams this way, but by doing this, you’re unwittingly creating silos. For sales and marketing, distance doesn’t make the heart grow fonder. The first step to streamlining sales-marketing relationships is to bring the team together.
2. Set A Shared Goal
Traditionally, marketing and sales have created their own agendas. But that’s the problem: The two teams may be working too independently and costing you money.
Marketing and sales should have a shared vision. For example, if your goal is to boost customer retention for sales, you don’t want to target only new customers with your marketing. You can’t move the needle as effectively if your two teams have opposing goals.
3. Define Standard Operating Procedures
Next, create a playbook based on your shared goal. The standard operating procedure (SOP), should get everyone on the same page. The SOP should include things like:
• Definitions.
• Processes.
• Tools.
• Responsibilities.
• Metrics.
• Timelines.
4. Foster Communication
Documentation and transparency are the name of the game here. You should foster communication between sales and marketing to both keep the team accountable and improve the customer experience.
5. Embrace Regular Feedback
Breaking down silos means changing how you do business. Any time you try something new, there’s a good chance you will need to adjust as you go. This process isn’t going to be perfect. That’s why you should continuously analyze and pivot until you find a sales and marketing process that works for your business.
Read Lydia’s blog in its entirety here.
