By John Sonnhalter, Rainmaker Journeyman, Sonnhalter
For some reason there’s always been a disconnect between sales and marketing, and for the life of me I can’t understand why they can’t play nice. After all isn’t the objective of both is to increase sales?
I recently read an article in Duct Tape Marketing, Counseling the Marriage Between Marketing and Sales to Generate Revenue that got me thinking of why they should work together towards the same goal.
Most of the journey your contractors take is already over by the time they speak with a salesperson. That’s a tremendous opportunity for marketing to influence the sales process and dovetail together in creating a seamless experience.
Here’s an interesting statistic: 57% of the buyer’s journey is completed before the buyer talks to sales, according to Gartner. Prospects know more about you than you know about them.
Mutual Expectations
It’s important for sales and marketing to have the same mutual expectations. The answers to these questions will help plan your marketing activities, methods, reporting and everything in between:
- What do you consider a sales ready lead? How can we generate more of those?
- Where are your opportunities stuck in the pipeline? What content would they benefit from?
- How long is your sales cycle? How can we nurture leads along the sales cycle?
It’s important to stay on the same page, here are a few ways to ensure that sales and marketing are collaborating:
- Define contractor personas: Know to whom you’re marketing, before you start, and ensure that sales has the same knowledge.
- Understand the sales cycle: Know where each contractor is in the sales cycle, what has come before, and what steps come next, whether you’re talking top, middle or bottom of the funnel.
- Understand verticals, target audiences and markets: Without being able to segregate, you’re attempting to treat everyone the same, regardless of their place in the sales funnel, their needs, or their goals.
- Get sales’ input on what content is available and content is needed: Sales can be marketing’s most valuable ally in content ideation, generation, and creation. Make use of their invaluable insight to leverage greater results and drive revenue.
- Listen in on sales calls: This can give you significant comprehension of the challenges sales faces when marketing hands off a lead, allowing you to better tailor your marketing activities.
Bottom line is that sales and marketing are on the same team. Let’s start working closer together to meet the companies goals.
If you like this post these may be of interest:
Are Your Sales and Marketing Teams Working Together to Reach the Professional Tradesman?