As B2B sales and marketing professionals, you might be familiar with the classic complaint about marketing — the leads they generate are useless. Similarly, marketing teams might complain that sales isn’t following up on leads, even though plenty of leads are available.
This type of finger-pointing only increases the rift between sales and marketing teams and keeps them from working together towards a common goal. If your organization is experiencing this, here are some tips to help your teams align:
- Be empathetic. Put yourself in each other’s shoes and remember that you’re both here to help the company scale and succeed.
- Assess, don’t accuse. Instead of blaming each other when a month goes poorly, try to sit down together and understand what went wrong.
- Keep each other in the loop. If you’re not on track to hit the targets in a certain month, or if you foresee that next month might not be as good as this one, then set expectations with the other team in advance.
Let’s take a look at some more tips on how to align sales
Speak the Same Language
It’s important for sales and marketing teams to understand that they both exist for one reason: to generate revenue for your business. To do this, it’s essential that marketing and sales teams start speaking the same language — revenue. Rather than just focusing on generating leads, marketing and sales teams should ask questions like:
- What is the company’s revenue goal for the year?
- What is the average deal size for the quarter?
- How many customers are required to hit your revenue goal for the year?
- What is the lead to conversion rate for the quarter?
- How many leads are required to hit the revenue goal for the year/quarter?
Define the Characteristics of a Sales-Ready Lead
No matter how many leads marketing generates, it won’t matter if the characteristics of a sales-ready lead aren’t defined properly. To do this, marketing and sales teams need to work together to define the “fit” and “interest” of a lead. However, if the lead is to make sure right fit and shows interest, then sales needs to follow-up with it quickly.
Over-Communication is Key
When marketing and sales work in silos, there’s a lack of communication. To avoid this, set up frequent sync-ups between marketing and sales teams. Get all the stakeholders/leadership to have weekly sync-ups to discuss what is happening in each team. It is an opportunity to share new ideas, discuss strategies, and identify any issues that may be affecting the progress of either team.
Conclusion
It’s important for B2B sales and marketing teams to understand that they’re two sides of the same coin. Working together towards a common goal requires teams to speak the same language, define the characteristics of a sales-ready lead and communicate often. By taking these steps, sales and marketing teams can make sure they’re aligned and working together to deliver great results.
