Ever heard of "Smarketing"?
This term, born from the contraction of the words " Sales " and " Marketing ", refers to the balance and collaboration around common objectives between a company's sales and marketing departments.
After all, marketing and sales are often presented as the enemy brothers of an organization!
The sales team complains about the poor quality of the leads generated by marketing... while the marketing team blames sales for not processing its leads fast enough!
But when these two departments are no longer in harmony, the productivity of the whole company suffers.
According to a study by Forrester Research, companies with non-aligned sales and marketing teams lose around 10%* in annual revenues.
So how do you move away from a silo-based approach and create genuine synergy between sales and marketing?
Here are our 4 success factors!
*Marketing Enablement Improves Business Outcomes - Show Me The Value, Forrester Research, 2022
KEY No. 1 - Use a CRM
Using a CRM, teams can track all interactions with customers and prospects in real time, enabling them to better understand their needs and preferences.
This deeper understanding of customers and prospects enables marketing and sales teams to better adjust their strategy in real time, based on the results obtained.
What's more, by tracking the results of each marketing action, it's possible to associate an ROI with each of them, which is essential for measuring the effectiveness of each campaign.
Better understanding
Using a CRM is also an effective way of strengthening collaboration between marketing and sales teams.
By sharing information about customers and prospects, teams can better understand prospects' needs and preferences, enabling them to advise them better and offer solutions tailored to their needs.
Additional opportunities
By working together, teams can improve the quality of service offered to customers and prospects, boost loyalty and increase sales.
This relationship of trust between customers and the company also generates additional business opportunities and strengthens the company's reputation.
If you'd like an expert to help you optimize the use of your CRM by your teams, click on the button below.
The aim of this exchange is to provide you with the keys to change.
KEY No. 2 - Monitor your metrics
To ensure effective collaboration between marketing and sales teams, it is essential to have clear and precise metrics to measure the results of each action.
Indeed, these metrics enable us to better understand the impact of marketing actions on sales, and to better adjust strategies according to the results obtained.
On the marketing side, it's important to track the number of leads needed to reach the company's sales targets.
This metric allows us to better understand the effectiveness of our marketing actions, and to adjust our strategies according to the results obtained.
On the sales side, it is important to measure the responsiveness and quality of lead follow-up and appointment setting.
This metric enables us to measure the quality of lead follow-up and identify areas for improvement to better meet customer needs.
It's also important to track the rate at which leads are converted into customers, to measure the effectiveness of each stage in the sales process.
For example, if a company generates 100 leads a month but only manages to convert 10% of them into customers, it's important to understand why the other leads haven't been converted into customers. This metric will help you understand where you need to improve to better convert leads into customers.
Finally, it's important to measure the acquisition cost of each customer to better understand the effectiveness of marketing and sales actions.
For example, if the company has spent 10,000 euros on advertising to generate 100 leads and has finally acquired 5 new customers, the cost of acquiring each customer is 2,000 euros.
This metric enables us to better understand the profitability of each marketing and sales action, and to adjust our strategies accordingly.
Don't know which metrics to track? Start by working on your Business Flow to identify the number of leads you need to reach your objectives.
Click on the button below to download our Business Flow construction template.
KEY No. 3 - Bring your teams together
Once these metrics have been defined, communicate them regularly to your marketing and sales teams, so that they become part of their daily routine.
Team meetings are an excellent way of achieving this!
Bringing your two departments together effectively aligns them on a common strategy for :
- Your customers
- Your offers
- Your campaigns
- Your results
To be able to offer attractive content that meets the needs of your prospects, your marketers need feedback and sales pitches from your sales reps. And your sales reps need to be up to date with all current marketing campaigns to ensure the smooth flow of your customers' buying cycle.
Organize regular meetings between your sales and marketing teams to encourage collaboration:
- Meetings to launch the week and review objectives and priorities 🎯
- Brainstorming workshops where your two teams can exchange ideas and solve a common problem 🧠
- Cross-training to enhance your employees' skills in complementary areas of expertise 📚
- Team building activities to strengthen team cohesion 🤝
Corporate seminars bring together all the activities your teams need to work together!
These are key moments in the life of your company, reinforcing your corporate culture and your employees' sense of belonging.
May is the perfect time to start organizing your back-to-school seminar!
We'd like to share with you our white paper on the subject, listing the mistakes to avoid and the keys to follow to ensure the success of your event.
KEY No. 4: Expert advice
