Despite seeming similar to an outside observer, sales and marketing make up two distinct departments. Marketing improves sales by ensuring consumers are aware of the product and its benefits. However, sales can generate valuable data that allows for more focused marketing.
It’s a positive feedback loop, but it only works if both departments can communicate and cooperate effectively. Without this bridge, neither department works to its fullest potential. To this end, companies need to figure out how to bridge the chasm between sales and marketing for more effectiveness in both quarters. Below, 16 members of Forbes Agency Council examine the ways a company can get these departments to work together effectively.
Members offer advice for helping your sales and marketing teams collaborate better.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Define What Success Looks Like For Both
Clearly defining what success looks like to both departments is a great first step (and not letting one department dictate the other’s success is key). Channels like social and digital can really be fine-tuned to attract and capture sales, while PR and some advertising is harder to track but so important to building the brand. It really comes down to communication and setting those KPIs together. – Evie Smith, Rebellious PR & Consulting
2. Implement An Entrepreneurial Operating System
Communication is at the center of it all. I strongly recommend implementing a system like EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System). They offer an effective solution with 10-level meetings. The Level 10 Meeting incorporates the psychology of what makes for great weekly meetings, forcing you to look at and address what is most important, solving your issues as they arise. – Frank Rojas, Qode Media Inc.
3. Use A Structured Discussion Format
Use a structured discussion format, such as the Nominal Group Technique, with sales and marketing both talking about what they need for success at the same time. NGT helps pull out what people are thinking and results in an agreed-upon set of priorities. The structure keeps loud mouths from taking over and forces the introverts to participate. – Elonide Semmes, Right Hat, LLC
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4. Unite Them Under One Leader
We’ve bridged the gap between sales and marketing by literally uniting them all under one leader. We have found that this provides a clear line of sight across go-to-market strategies, the ability to repurpose client wins and successes, as well as a single source of truth that all can access to follow the lifecycle of leads from generation to close. – Jay Dettling, Ansira
5. Interview Sales Reps Regularly
Short of talking to customers, interviewing sales reps regularly can uncover customer questions, objections and hot buttons that can be tested in campaigns. Just by asking, you’re acknowledging the salesperson’s expertise, which is a good step toward bridging the gap. And by delivering assets sales actually uses to close deals, you’re showing that marketing is on the same team. – Khali Henderson, BuzzTheory
6. Ensure They Have Overlapping Goals And Metrics
The best starting point is ensuring that the teams have overlapping goals and metrics. When each member of the sales team is focused solely on achieving a personal sales quota while marketing team members are A/B testing an email, silos are inevitable. Members of both teams need to understand the connection between building brand awareness, generating warm leads and closing business opportunities. – James Burn, BrandActive
7. Align Expectations And Paths Of Progress
A good way to build a bridge between sales and marketing is to create a common plan and process where both “silos” can share their new expectations and paths of progress. Our job as agencies is to increase collaboration between them in order to maximize success in line with this “new normal” reality. – Dolores Biocca, Bond Communications
8. Organize Brainstorming Sessions
I believe the saying, “make what you can sell, not sell what you can make.” It is always about market sentiment, and sales personnel are always on the ground listening to clients’ and partners’ feedback about the market. Brainstorming sessions could be held internally, with suggestions and ideas from both teams to accurately identify the best method moving forward. Effective communication is key. – Roy Kek, DIFY
9. Hold Weekly Meetings
Communication between the sales and marketing teams is indeed key. Salespeople know who we are marketing to, so without their input, the marketing department’s campaigns would not engage with the correct audience. For us, weekly meetings to get on the same page work best. Additionally, setting up MQL goals for the marketing teams ensures that marketing is getting what the sales teams need to be successful. – Warren Jolly, AdQuadrant
10. Stop The Blame Game
Stop the blame game. Too many companies pit marketing and sales against each other, intentionally or unintentionally. Sales blames marketing for not giving more or better leads, and marketing blames sales for not acting on or closing the leads they get. Agencies need to help their clients see the benefit of a win-win approach in which sales, marketing and the agency win or lose together. – Scott Baradell, Idea Grove
11. Get Them To Craft The Right Message
The key to successful marketing is crafting the right message for the right audience. A good sales team will be your best source for discovering the pain points and the language that your target audience actually uses. Getting sales involved in crafting the right stories will help improve your marketing campaign conversion rates and ultimately deliver more qualified leads to sales. – Toren Ajk, TAC Marketing Group
12. Implement Account-Based Marketing
Implementing account-based marketing is a great way for marketers to bridge the gap between marketing and sales. By working with sales teams to identify and prioritize accounts, contacts, personas and key messages to focus on, marketers craft targeted marketing efforts that drive to revenue, and sales teams feel supported with a strategy they are bought into. – Renee Yeager, Yeager Marketing
13. Leverage Buyer Behavior Data
I’ve found that the common language between sales and marketing is uncovering the right data regarding buyer behaviors. We use an AI data analytics platform to capture actual online behaviors of prospects of our clients and competitors. Once we identify the topics driving lead conversions, we can create marketing campaigns and build sales models that can be measured and adjusted. – David Chapman, 919 Marketing Company
14. Explore Hybrid Team Designs
A systemic problem requires a systemic solution. Close the gap by exploring hybrid team designs where sales and marketing professionals sit in the same (virtual) pod, working in tandem — with shared contributions and shared commission structures — to achieve revenue objectives. Sound crazy? Just look at the DevOps and DevSecOps movements happening in the developer space. It’s possible. – Andrew Au, Intercept Group
15. Use Tools That Fit Both Teams’ Needs
Your marketing and sales teams may already feel worlds apart, but this gap can widen when they aren’t utilizing the same technology. Rather than seeking out separate tools for marketing and sales, try to adopt technology that fits the needs of both sectors. This will encourage collaboration and a better understanding of each team’s role, which will create more interdepartmental cohesion. – Adam Binder, Creative Click Media
16. Hold Monthly Team Challenges
Monthly team challenges within the organization will help keep the gap bridged between marketing and sales. Split your team into groups of three or four people mixed from both teams. Delegate one project/campaign to collaborate and work on together. This will help create unity between the two and will also explode your results as an agency and allow your teams to grow together. – Harley Cannard, Amz Automation Australia PTY LYD
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Author: Expert Panel®, Forbes Councils Member
