Your marketing department may be working overtime to generate leads, but do you know what happens next? Many companies experience disconnect between their marketing and sales departments, and lose valuable opportunities as a result. Based on our experience, we’ve compiled three crucial tips to help you improve integration between marketing and sales:
1. Share information
Many departments have little insight into the daily function of other staff members, however this lack of communication between marketing and sales can be highly detrimental to your business. Whether you are using a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system like Salesforce or another means of storing information, ensure that both marketing and sales have access to all customer records and keep information up-to-date. Without integrated information, your marketing department can’t ensure that the sales team is properly following up with leads and your sales team can’t provide feedback to marketing about lead quality and channel effectiveness.
2. Merge department activities
The easiest way to integrate marketing and sales is to merge the departments, yet according to Forbes, only 17% of companies have done so. If it’s not possible to change your organizational structure, there are still many things you can do to increase teamwork and integration. Set up regular, frequent meetings that include both marketing and sales to increase insight and generate more feedback within the two groups. Give salespeople an opportunity to review marketing content, and to collaborate on the marketing budget. Give marketing employees an opportunity to gain firsthand knowledge with a rotation in sales and customer account management.
3. Focus on the right metrics
Different metrics for marketing and sales reinforce a fragmented work force. Focus instead on key metrics for company revenue, such as the number of new opportunities and new sales. These metrics will help to unify marketing and sales around generating business, rather than individual incentives that aren’t actually contributing to your bottom line. Holding marketing and sales accountable to the same goals can also contribute to transparency and teamwork, instead of historical tension.