Your sales and marketing teams should fit together like hand and glove, although at times this can seem like a challenge. Each group has their own agenda: sales, to sell your product and earn commissions, and marketing, to effectively promote that product. Even though they’re on different teams, everyone involved is reaching for the same goal: for the company to be successful. That’s the bottom line to keep in mind.
That being said, sales and marketing departments may still have challenges to overcome when it comes to communication, productivity and working effectively together. Here are some tips to improve those crucial elements of your business in order for you to realize the success you’re seeking.
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Mix Things Up
At many companies, departments are divided up when it comes to seating arrangements. Instead of keeping all salespeople together and all marketing people together, consider integrating them. Dedicate an entire sales/marketing section of the office, and have salespeople and marketing people sit next to each other.
This accomplishes several things. Each group can see what the other does on a daily basis and gain a better appreciation for each other’s work. They can ask questions of each other, gather sales leads and offer feedback on marketing campaigns. Plus, they can develop personal relationships instead of fostering an “us vs. them” mentality.
Have Regular Meetings
To better keep the lines of communication open, hold regular meetings for your sales and marketing teams. Prepare a meeting agenda before hand to review activity that both departments are engaging in and update each team on what the other is doing. It doesn’t have to be time-consuming – perhaps 30 minutes is enough – but it should be in-depth enough to thoroughly cover current and future activities. Encourage your staff to interact with each other, ask questions and toss out any new ideas. This will get them thinking of each other as comrades instead of competitors.
Turn to Tech
Make sure you’re taking full advantage of the technology that’s out there to help improve communication between sales and marketing. There are many programs, such as Evernote, that allow colleagues to easily share ideas and communicate, as well as share the latest sales numbers and projections. Programs like this help co-workers feel connected and, literally, on the same page.
You can also encourage the use of online chat programs. That way, if a salesperson is out in the field and has a question, he can quickly have it answered by a marketing professional back at the office.
Take advantage of cloud technology and the myriad of collaboration tools that are out there to help your teams communicate both in the office and on the road.
Provide Feedback
Have your sales team provide constructive feedback on the leads provided by the marketing department. In turn, have your marketing department provide feedback to sales on how they are doing with those leads. By allowing all members to provide feedback, both good and bad, it helps bring out into the open any improvements that are needed for everyone to do their jobs better and more effectively. It’s all about empowerment and enabling members of both departments to be accountable for their actions.
Share Data
Data spells out in black and white how well conversions are going and whether marketing and sales are hitting their goals. Share relevant data during those regular meetings and through your shareware programs, so everyone is always on the same page. Data never lies, so having proof that something is working or not doing so well makes things clear to all team members what can be improved upon and what is going great.
These strategies will help get your sales and marketing departments working together towards the common goal of company success. By communicating effectively, productivity will increase and so will their ease in working with each other. That’s good news for each department and for your company’s bottom line.
