4 Simple Steps to Connecting Your Sales and Marketing Teams

By Jacob Hanson

I recently heard a marketing VP at a leading ed tech company say, “We just aren’t getting what we need out of our sales team, so we’re forced to move forward without their input.” Does this sound familiar? Unfortunately, most executives have faced some sort of disconnect between sales and marketing teams. It doesn’t have to be this way!

Why have two sides of the same coin historically been so at odds with each other? Research shows that roughly 87% of sales and marketing teams use negative terms to describe each other. Yikes. We can’t fix the past, but we can look to the future and ensure that we are part of the growing 13% who understand the power of connecting sales and marketing through common goals and a shared vision for the future. Sales and marketing are indeed two sides of the same coin, that coin being generating REVENUE.

Here are four ways to foster collaboration between your sales and marketing teams.

• Align your metrics. Establish a shared vision, mutually agreed-upon goals, and a solid system for measuring progress. 

• Focus on your buyer personas. All sales and marketing efforts should be centered on one focal point: your buyer personas. It takes information from both marketing and sales to accurately create personas, keep them current, and decide how best to reach the people behind the personas.

• Communicate and educate. Sales and marketing teams collect information in their own respective ways. All too often, that information lives in a silo. Find ways to share data sets so everyone knows what the company has learned.

• Be transparent. Find ways that your teams can interact, keep up with what the other is doing, and collaborate. Sharing a recent sales conversation or results from recent marketing outreach could dramatically impact your subsequent approach to your next nurture campaign or conversation with a prospect.

Ultimately, both sales and marketing teams are paid from the same pot of money: revenue. So it benefits both sides of the coin to reach across the proverbial aisle, get the conversation started, and figure out how to boost revenue together.

Thank you for sharing!