In today’s world, customers have access to much more information and do a lot of research before making a purchase or contacting a sales representative. The buying journey is no longer what it used to be. How do companies evolve to provide an updated, seamless experience? Companies must align their marketing and sales teams to work toward a common goal and convey common messages. Learn here how you can align your sales and marketing teams.

1. Revamp Your Company Culture & Structure

For a long time, sales and marketing teams have operated in individual silos, often not knowing what the other group was even doing. To align your company’s mission and goals, these sets of professionals need to be on the same page, and that comes from the way your internal culture and structure operate. Everyone needs to have an understanding of who is responsible for which aspects of the sales cycle so each individual can bring their strengths to the table. Your salespeople — who have a deep understanding of the buyers’ journey by way of customer interactions — should be paired with your marketing folks, who have the skills to analyze social sciences and data analytics.

Allow members of each team to shadow someone from the other group so everyone gets a chance to learn what the other people are doing. This should ultimately help your company’s goals align more cohesively, as everyone will begin to understand how their contributions affect the bigger picture. Shadowing can also increase peer respect, acumen and an appreciation for the nuances that might otherwise be frustrating if there isn’t an understanding of the processes.

Source: Formulate

2. Restructure the Customer Journey

In order to get everyone from sales and marketing on the same page, all of your team members need to understand your customers’ journeys. Start with the awareness stage at the beginning of the customer journey funnel, then work your way to the brand-loyalty stage. Every aspect of the buyer’s journey needs to be a cohesive experience to which your sales and marketing teams can relate. Focus on getting a holistic experience of your customers’ journeys so you can create a single experience that your sales and marketing teams can support and enhance.

Source: SearchEngineLand.com

3. Have Both Teams Meet Regularly

The best way to keep your sales and marketing teams on the same page is to bring them together on a consistent basis. This should facilitate teamwork and help break down those siloed barriers that can cause disruption in your overall processes. Invite your marketing team to weekly sales meetings so those professionals can understand how goals and quotas affect their job performances. This could help them gain insight into some strategies that the marketing department can do to usher in better-qualified leads. Conversely, your sales team should be attending marketing meetings so they can get a better understanding of the work that goes into generating the concepts they’re selling.

4. Incentivize Collective Goals

Sales professionals are notoriously driven by incentives, but why should your marketing people be left out of this mix? If you want everyone to work toward a common goal, create collective incentives. Coordinate both teams’ strategies and resources in ways that drive your brand’s overall mission. Consider updating your compensation structures in ways that tie marketing and sales goals together, so your unified sales and marketing team can enjoy shared successes.

5. Track Joint KPIs

The alignment of sales and marketing teams has historically been a challenge for many companies because the metrics by which they are measured vary greatly. Salespeople are trained to focus on numbers, while marketing pros look at quantity, quality and brand awareness. From the beginning, they are often not on the same page.

To get these departments in sync, make sure you are measuring joint key performance indicators. This should give both teams the synergy they need to come together to employ customer-acquisition efforts that can benefit your whole brand.

6. Use Customer Feedback to Your Advantage

Take the time to look at the feedback you receive from customers. This can help put your sales and marketing teams on the same track because they’re seeing real input from the people they have been trying to target. Voice of Customer (VOC) data can be obtained during phone calls, through post-sale surveys and through general interactions you might have with your customers every day.

Use the insights you glean to create new marketing phrases or embark on new messages while you refine the way your products or services are presented.

Source: SuperOffice

To Sum Up

Sales and marketing teams are very different, but they need to work together to ensure the livelihood of your business. By following best practices, your teams can pair up and become one unstoppable force with which to be reckoned.

Author bio: Grant Clarke is Senior Vice President of Global Sales Operations and Pre-Sales Consulting at ServiceSource. His experience and knowledge uniquely position Clarke to scale his capabilities to ensure ServiceSource is focused on improving the customer journey for the company’s clients.