Big or small, organizations focus on adopting digital tools and technologies across their operations and processes like never before. The pandemic has amplified this transformation. Embracing digital solutions across the value stream is a crucial step in digital transformation.
The key to this transformation is to set the culture and collaboration right. Often disconnect between teams can make an effort futile. It is even more critical for the two customer-facing teams to be on the same page. Yes, we are talking about the marketing and sales team. They got to be on the same page for tapping the benefits of digital transformation.
Why Must Marketing Spearhead this Initiative?
The marketing team is responsible today for many crucial aspects that help an organization move forward. They play a key role right from building awareness to curating leads using sales enablement. The marketing team also plays an active role in making better ROI on all the marketing spends to have a great selling experience. Enhancing the processes at multiple touchpoints is crucial for better customer experience and building an efficient sales engine.
Sales and Marketing Alignment
The organizations that have figured out the key to providing a delightful customer experience have one thing in common – the alignment of the marketing and sales team. Efficient organizations have metrics to measure the entire sales cycle and work on improving the metrics from time to time.
But, organizations miss out on understanding the insights from metrics, which leads to prospects dropping off at some point in the sales cycle.
So, let’s address the question – how can organizations work on improving the sales & marketing alignment?
1. Crossfunctional Catch Ups
A lot of valuable information may be lost if departments only spoke with one another during scheduled meetings. Post-hoc information processing makes it more challenging to grasp the big picture. Instead, it would help if you discussed how to improve communication between groups.
Think about the resources at your company’s disposal right now. Is a company-wide tool like Slack or a project management system in use? Regular viewers are more inclined to check a station they already know.
Workers from various departments may not use that communication channel every day, but simply knowing of a handy way to share any pertinent information they discover smooths the process of encouraging them to do so.
2. Establishing a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System
All organizations, whether small, mid-sized, or large, must have a CRM system that enables transparency and serves as a great channel for cross-functional collaboration. Today, many SaaS companies have evolved that provide CRM services. Also, the cost of having a CRM system in place has decreased drastically.
3. Imbibe Account-Based Management (ABM)
It’s always easier to communicate for the marketing team if the customer profile is known. Defining the customer profile and the Product Market Fit (PMF) is critical for any account-based marketing strategy. ABM strategy can help tailor the messaging and which in turn helps the message reach the intended audience.
4. Content Framework
Messaging the right customers is essential for sales to happen. The sales team needs to feed the correct data to the marketing team to better the messaging. It helps the sales team in conversions and drives better performance in email marketing campaigns.
5. Top of Funnel
Customer churn can happen in any of the stages during the sales cycle. The sales team’s input on the reasons could help the marketing team simplify the sales cycle. Understanding the reason for churn and bettering the sales cycle is key to the organization’s success.
6. Digital Marketing
In this day and age, digital marketing proves to be the best medium to get a better ROI on marketing investments. Sales and marketing teams should be able to use digital marketing tips and techniques for better conversions.
Why is Sales & Marketing Synergy Required?
The organization’s growth is dependent on sales. For aiding the sale, the marketing team has to play a pivotal role in this process.. Here are a few essential benefits an organization can achieve through this synergy.
1. Multichannel Strategy
The difference between online and offline channels is shrinking these days. Any organization got to have an online presence irrespective of its strong zone. Leads could flow in from any channel these days.
To gain customers trust, an online presence is a must. The synergy helps the organization understand customers better. Proper updation of the lead list and tracking of the customer journey gives inputs to the organization to better them. It can also help in establishing better product market fit.
2. Better Customer Profiling
The sales team has a better understanding of the nuances of sales and the reason for them to happen. The flow of this information to the marketing team and the organization at large can help in better conversions. Proper research with the sales team’s help can improve the product and provide better communication. There are various methods to gain customer insights, namely;
- A/B testing
- Polls & surveys
- Customer interactions
- Customer feedbacks
- Qualitative conversations with customers
- Focus groups
Better Customer Engagement
The most effective way to engage with customers is to personalize the conversations. Every bit of communication via emails or social posts got to be more personalized. The marketing team could understand customers well if the sales team provides on-ground inputs to the marketing team.
The more the customers engage in conversing with the brand, the better the conversions. When a customer is associated with the brand, repeat purchases happen. It enhances customer engagement and churns in positive results in terms of conversions.
How Should an Organization Plan to Bring Sales & Marketing Alignment?
Now that we understand the impact of this alignment let’s focus a bit on the means to achieving it. It’s a slow process but it must start as early as possible.
1. Building Culture
Mindset is the primary hurdle to overcome. Building a culture in the organization that accepts the change is highly critical. To make that, the organization must focus on building collaboration, encouraging transparency, and encouraging teams to take calculated risks.
Often the pressure of numbers puts the process improvements on the back seat. But, for sustainable growth, process change is a must. Fostering that cultural mindset is essential for growth.
2. Innovation
The world is changing rapidly. We are in a “meta” era. Having better experiences for customers to interact with is a must. Customers these days are often bombarded with information about various products. Innovation helps businesses stand apart from their competitors. It is a crucial step in scaling a business and boosting the sales of the company.
3. Upskilling
Digital tools will not succeed without users making the best out of them. Training the workforce and making them adept with new technologies is a crucial part of growth.
Conclusion
Achieving the alignment is no easy step. It requires consistent collaboration and transparency in the system to complete. A good digital transformation strategy is crucial for it to happen. It proves that when the sales and marketing teams are aligned, both in terms of goals and mission, the company is bound to reap fantastic results.