Why
Sales and Marketing Can't Operate in Silos
By Susan Young, President, AimFire Marketing
October 2006
Does
your company have a separate marketing team and inside/outside
sales team? If so, are they working together or is their lack of
communication working against you? Warning: You may be putting
your marketing dollars in the wrong place. Find out why it's
important for your sales and marketing teams to collaborate, the
minimum effort they must put forth, and some tactics for working
effectively together to shorten the sales cycle. Read on:
1. Hold regular sales and marketing meetings. The sales
team holds the key to knowing what the customer wants. Sales
people, unlike marketing folks, have the luxury of one-on-one
interaction with the customers. Therefore, they know what makes
the customers tick, which can only help produce more effective
marketing. Marketing and sales people should meet weekly
or at least monthly to discuss what goes on during the sales
calls and how prospects react to proposals and marketing
promotions. This regular communication can help determine the
best methods for generating leads and closing the sale.
2. Test your marketing campaigns on your sales team. Before
you run an ad, send out a sales letter, or print a brochure,
have your sales team review it first to see if it makes sense
from a customer's perspective, and closely matches the selling
process. They may think of something to add or suggest a change
that would make a big impression on the prospect, that the
marketing team may not have discovered. It also helps to show
the sales team because if they are better informed about the
company's marketing and advertising efforts, they can sell
better and can assist with tracking the return on investment.
3. Have a feedback loop. Institute a formal policy of
tracking the effectiveness of ads and other marketing material.
Aside from traditional tracking methods, such as coupon codes or
customized website landing pages, encourage sales people to
notify the marketing team if a prospect mentions an ad or
campaign (or have them record the lead source in your customer
relationship management software or customer database). This
also helps ensure return on marketing investments.
4. Give sales people the tools they need to succeed. Instead
of creating the marketing material and setting the sales people
loose, ask the sales team what marketing materials or support
they need to sell more effectively. Are your current marketing
tools working? What are competitors doing to market effectively?
What ideas do the sales people have for promotions or other
tactics? Helping the sales people close more sales with more
effective marketing tools is a win-win for both marketing and
sales teams.
So maintain an open interaction in your company between your
marketers and your sales people, and work together toward a
common goal. Doing so will ensure that both parties work
cost-effectively and that you don't waste a penny of your
marketing dollars.
Susan Young is
president of AimFire Marketing, an Indianapolis, Indiana marketing,
public relations and website development firm that works with
growing companies to implement effective marketing
communications programs. You
can contact Susan and learn more about Aim Fire Marketing by
visiting www.aimfiremarketing.com.
Copyright
- Aim Fire Marketing. You can reprint this article on your
website or newsletter by including this and the above paragraph.
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