Marketing And Sales: A Necessary Union

Close up of 2 gears touching each other, one has Sales written on it and the other has Marketing next to the Richards Building Supply logo

COMMUNICATIONS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER

WHAT DOES THE COMPANY DEMAND?

When experts meet with entrepreneurs, they look for ways to leverage digital marketing to grow sales. The recurring theme among all these meetings is that there is a distinct language in both departments that neither department inherently understands.

Management, team leaders, and employees know their jobs, but once cross-departmental collaboration is required, missing documentation becomes immediately apparent. This gap can often cause communications to break down.

Companies that look at updated agreed on department definitions as a component of collaboration readiness are well-positioned for success. They go one step further with the creation of a service level agreement (SLA). In other words: a quality pact that regulates relations between departments and makes processes more fluid.

HOW DO I SUCCESSFULLY INTEGRATE THE AREAS OF MARKETING AND SALES?

You must negotiate the objectives.

The heads of each department must sit at the negotiating table. Just as the sales team has monthly quantitative objectives, the marketing area must have a specific number of leads to achieve. In this way, the pressure to sell falls on both, and each department will need to work in unison towards concrete objectives.

Improve communication.

It is the essential advice that any family therapist offers to a disputed marriage. The same applies to our case. Face to face and writing, and both departments should exchange information about their actions, achievements, or failures. A weekly report that flows between both parties and even a meeting is necessary for greater transparency.

Generate an SLA.

The Service-Level Agreement details the marketing goals (leads, qualified leads) and the sales team’s activity with those prospects. Together they should commit to supporting the work. If you don’t know how to create an SLA, keep reading, and I’ll show you how to do it.

STEPS TO IMPLEMENT AN SLA BETWEEN MARKETING AND SALES.

The first step to take is to establish the numerical objectives of the marketing department. To do this, you must first know these metrics:

  • Total sales targets in terms of profit share

  • Percentage of benefits that come from the leads generated by the marketing area and that generated sales

  • Average sales volume

  • Percentage of leads that become customers

You must be very clear about how many leads are necessary for the sales team to close several transactions that reach the weekly, monthly, and annual sales objectives. Everyone should be informed of:

  • The number of leads generated by the marketing area.

  • How many of those leads have become customers?

  • Profits were obtained from those clients.

The second step is to define and calculate sales area metrics. For marketing efforts to be successful, the commercial area must be agile in managing prospects. That is why the SLA for this area must cover these aspects:

  • Contact the lead in less than 5 minutes once you have requested information.

  • The number of calls, emails, or any other type of contact with the client.

  • If you cannot have face-to-face contact with each lead, look to do an automated follow-up, ensuring that a lead receives an email response promptly.

AN IMPORTANT ASPECT IS TRACKING ALL THESE METRICS EVERY MONTH AND CREATING OBJECTIVES AND GOALS TO KEEP ON TRACK.

Discrepancies or differences between marketing and sales.

To avoid frictions such as: “the leads they send me are of little value” or “those from sales do not know how to treat leads,” it works to achieve transparency. With frequent face-to-face meetings between both departments will assist in identifying what processes are perfectible.

It is also essential to examine the entire sales process and have arguments, presentations, videos, reports, and all the support material for marketing and sales actions with high standards.

If you add a customer-focused marketing strategy, better synchronization will be generated between teams since better prospects are attracted, and the sales force’s efforts are reduced.

These are the most relevant resources or techniques to attract customers between marketing and sales.

When marketing and sales work in unison, the better the results will be!

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Richards Building Supply

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