The sales and marketing department has always been at odds when discussing their respective impact on the overall growth of the organization.
The digital divide between sales and marketing is not something most B2B industries are unfamiliar with. But, recent years have shown the divide between these two departments needs to be eliminated. Instead of squabbling over the numbers and quality of leads, both department leaders should step aside from their differences and find a way to collaborate. If not, surviving in today’s extremely competitive marketplace will only get difficult, resulting in declining revenue and overall growth.
The successful integration between sales and marketing teams has comprehensive customer profiles that provide an overview of every touchpoint of the entire customer journey. They can understand the relevant metrics for both parties while collaboratively concentrating their efforts on generating top-funnel demands.
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Here are a few strategies that B2B brands can incorporate to successfully unify sales and marketing:
Know the stage of the marketing maturity framework
Marketing maturity helps B2B brands to move from a seller-centric to a buyer-centric approach towards their marketing efforts. Organizations in the initial stages of the maturity framework tend to be more project-focused, whereas those at the higher end are drivers of strategic growth. Once brands are able to identify the stages in the customer journey, they can make optimization to support a unification objective.
Organize feedback loops
After successfully launching the campaign, it is crucial to be aware of its quantitative and qualitative impact. Therefore, B2B brands should have a setup in place to capture the respective data. They should standardize their CRM to capture feedback on multiple campaigns. Doing so will help the sales representatives to point, click as well as provide their feedback. At the same time, they should also run a general report that highlights how their campaigns are delivering.
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Incorporate a multi-touch, multi-channel approach
With customers’ presence across multiple platforms, following the linear buyer’s journey is not going to give the expected results. Therefore, sales and marketing teams should be nimble as well as orchestrate complex, multi-step campaigns to engage key audiences of the buying committee. Multiple aspects such as webinars, direct mail, digital ads, and self-running demos all play a critical role when they are used to blanket an in-market account having insights and value. B2B brands should ensure that they deliver significant value at every touchpoint that their prospects will not be able to resist. This will help to strengthen the confidence of sales in marketing and vice versa.
Define and celebrate successes collectively
One of the crucial aspects of any team is their definition of success. After achieving their respective goals, sales and marketing departments should not celebrate their wins in silos. They should understand the importance of closing deals. While marketing is not responsible for closing the sales deal, they are undoubtedly responsible for helping the sales team identify quality leads. While sales are not responsible for driving leads, they are the ones who close the deal.
B2B brands should define small wins as well as leading indicators for the teams as well as to measure them. They should become bold and a step further by defining success in terms of revenue number. This can help them to lead the way while helping the team operate as one.
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