How can sales and marketing work together to achieve business objectives? We highlight strategies for improving communication and collaboration.
Research from Information Technology Service Marketing Association (ISTMA) shows that 84% of companies engaged in account-based marketing claim that the return on investment is higher than other marketing messages.
Having a clear understanding of how sales and marketing can work together efficiently is vital for business success. One problem is that sales and marketing departments often don’t work on the same page and have different targets and aims. Why does this happen? Here are a couple of reasons:
- It is a common thought that the mandate of the marketing department dictates how ‘sales’ operate.
- Many people think that ‘selling’ is marketing, which is simply not the case.
So how do you differentiate sales and marketing? Here’s a simple point by point guide when related to Account-Based Marketing.:
Marketing
- Marketing is one to many
- Marketing creates messages that are promoted to an audience
- Marketing looks after the reputation and persona of a brand
- Marketing needs to keep resonating with its target markets by circulating communications using the company’s “plumb line” as it central message
- Marketing analyses the primary data using the average result, not the specifics
- Marketing analyses the experiences customers expect
- Marketers read a consumer’s digital footprint and try to understand online behaviours
Sales
- Sales are about one to one
- Sales are where the customer comes in direct contact with the brand and creates a real-life experience
- Sales are relationship-driven
- Sales deal with the uncertainties and the details of each person. It cannot be averaged
- Sales study the behaviour of current and potential customers which they deal with on an individual basis
The one thing Marketing and Sales share is the company’s ‘plumb line’ and its stories. From many people to the person, the central plumb line – the ‘business of the business’ – needs to be consistent and help each customer connect in a meaningful and precise manner that is relevant to their situation and their view of the world.
Marketing for Lead Generation
B2B marketers must measure influence on specific accounts, in turn, this helps the sales team to quantify which marketing methods have worked when selling to clients or developing new business.
It’s difficult to attribute a click or a random/anonymous visit to your website. The reason why someone has clicked could have come from a variety of sources, from a Google search to seeing an advert in a trade publication. If you want your marketing to have substance, communicating to your sales team when someone from a target audience visited your site after being exposed to an ad will be crucial. You need to present this information on a regular basis, highlighting who from each account has found your content.
By using these metrics, it can feel like you are entering the unknown, but account-level reporting will help drive account-based marketing. The main details to garner from the reports are:
- The content that resonates with each account
- How long your ads are targeted towards you target audience
- The number of customers interacting with your content
The reporting helps with optimising your targeting through marketing and prioritises the potential customer who is most engaged.
The sales team still need to keep calling prospects, and the marketing team still need to create content and report on it, but with these two teams working together it will be quicker and easier to deliver on the business’ expectations.
