Sales and marketing need to be discrete entities in a business, as they require unique disciplines, and the jobs within each department are very different, thus attracting distinct personality types.
However, although there's no parity in the work these departments undertake, they strive to achieve a singular goal... bringing in more clientele to the business.
With that in mind, it's imperative that these departments develop a synergistic relationship in order to optimize lead closure and stimulate business growth.
This means that sales and marketing teams need to put their differences aside and work closely together for the benefit of the company.
This isn't going to happen on its own though, as enhancing the interplay between these divisions needs to be facilitated on a structural level by directors and senior management
Where far too many businesses go wrong is trying to spread their sales or marketing departments too thin by merging the roles in places, something that can cause confusion and impede clear communication between the two.
In light of this, the first step to cultivating synergy between sales and marketing is to implement strict job outlines within each department and communicate a clear boundary between the departments as a whole.
Interdepartmental Meetings
Not only should each department be having regular meetings to keep teams up to speed on progress and any upcoming strategic changes, but both should also have dual-department meetings as frequently as possible to discuss how their strategies play into one another.
Once the basic rules for this system are agreed upon, it must be automated, so no member of the marketing or sales team has to constantly tally up the value points of leads.
Step 3: Labeling Resources
Marketing teams should be sitting on a plethora of outreach resources, especially if they subscribe to the inbound strategy.
While the primary purpose of these resources is to spread awareness and increase interest in the business, service, or product, they can also help the sales team convert leads into customers.
However, Salespeople don't have time to dig through numerous marketing entities to find the right resource for each individual lead.
So, your marketing division should label all retained resources by persona and funnel position to make it easier.
This way, the sales team can effortlessly direct leads towards relevant resources that, combined with the gusto of sales employees, will increase the chances of lead conversion significantly.
They develop an automated email campaign that checks in with existing customers or informs them of upcoming deals.
Another reason these teams work so well together is their different levels of reach. Salespeople are close proximity operators, while marketers are zero proximity operators.
Understanding this can help form more successful lead retention strategies.
For example, there will be a significant number of quality leads that get the willies at the last minute, just before signing on the dotted line and shaking hands — So close!
They then leave the company ecosystem and continue their lives where salespeople can no longer reach them... but marketing can.
A quality retargeting campaign that maintains a connection with those that got away will often get them to reconsider or at least keep the company in mind.
They're then likely to return as an interested lead, giving the sales team another crack at converting them.
