Is your company approaching sales and marketing the right way? There are many misconceptions about the sales-marketing relationship that may hurt the way your company operates. These two departments—and their executives—misunderstand the other’s motives, goals and processes, which can end up costing your company. See how debunking these five myths can change the way your company's sales and marketing departments work together.
- Sales is all about the numbers. The more you sell, the more money you make, so numbers (quotas, deal amounts, etc.) are a prominent part of salespeople’s days. But to most successful salespeople, the people are the most important. Treating each prospect like a number won’t get you far, but creating and maintaining a positive, personable rapport with customers will. Understanding their needs and responding with the perfect collateral from marketing will make each of these relationships that much richer.
- Marketing isn’t measurable. On the other hand, many salespeople will tell you that marketing is in the dark when it comes to numbers. While this may have been true decades ago, today’s marketing is very data-driven. VentureBeat reports that 70% of highly successful marketers have implemented some sort of testing to aid with decision making, whether on an individual or company-wide scale. With marketing automation, marketing teams are able to generate more quality leads, measure marketing ROI, and increase conversion rates and ultimately revenue.
- Marketing takes too long. In a perfect world, marketing would launch a campaign or release new content and within minutes sales would have a massive influx of quality leads. But while marketing wants nothing more than to be the answer to all of sales’ problems, marketing processes take time to be effective. Typically, the benefits of a marketing campaign aren’t evident until 3-6 months after executed. So while it may seem like marketing is “taking too long,” it may help to adjust your time expectations. A carefully executed marketing plan produces positive sales results continuously over a long period of time, so it pays to be patient.
- Sales understands the customers, so research is a waste of time. It’s in the salesperson’s job description to know the customer. But over time, the customer changes and so does the company. It is important to invest in customer research, including understanding their needs, demands and expectations, in order to provide exactly what it is they’re looking for. Making this a priority will lead to more targeted, sophisticated content and better lead generation.
- Sales and marketing are independent silos. This is probably the biggest misunderstanding of the sales-marketing relationship. If sales and marketing work as separate entities, messaging will be inconsistent, content will be irrelevant and sales will confuse customers and prospects. Marketing needs feedback from sales—what content works and what doesn’t, what prospects are seeking—and sales needs marketing to provide them with the most useful information to attract prospects.
While sales and marketing are sometimes at odds with each other over general processes and priorities, it is crucial for both departments to understand each other. Recognizing—and avoiding— these five myths is a great place to start. By aligning their goals and changing the ideology around the sales and marketing relationship will foster collaboration and increase revenue.
