This article was written by Yael Warman, Content Manager at Leverate.
For years there has been this unspoken feud between sales and marketing about who brings the dough to a company. Well, as a parent of two, I have mastered the art of finding a friendly middle, so in the case of marketers and sales teams, here’s my way of applying my parenting skills to the argument at hand: you are both valuable.
While sales may be the ones to ultimately close the deal, recent research shows that 60% of the sales cycle is completed before prospects even speak to a sales agent, making marketing an integral part of the sales process. A potential trader may have read reviews about your company, asked friends for recommendations and had their attention caught by a piece of content or a banner your brokerage has advertised. Make sure all the information available online about your company is in line with your business strategy.
So how can these two siblings learn to work well together in the interest of reaching greatness? Here are a few tips:
Communication is key
The single most contributing factor to marketing and sales misalignment is poor communication. In order for marketing to develop a strategy that will work and marketing pieces that will both bring in quality Leads and support the sales process, it is imperative that they get feedback from sales and from customers. Set up monthly meetings between both departments in order to collaborate better. Sales can make requests from marketing and marketing can come up with new ideas based on the feedback received.
Keep the consumer in mind throughout the sales cycle
Digital marketing is a great way to help guide a consumer through the sales process. In this day and age, when consumers do extensive research and educate themselves using web content and social networks prior to making a purchasing decision, creating an integrated marketing strategy that is optimized with the consumer in mind in order to take them from the acquisition phase, to the engagement phase and ultimately to the conversion phase, is indispensable.
Be data driven
Sales may have a certain vision, while marketing may think a certain way of doing things is better. This is all a matter of opinion and opinions may be biased and subjective, but one thing that never lies is numbers. Sales are often measured for success every month or every quarter in terms of number of leads closed, or volume, while marketing may have completely different and unrelated KPIs. One thing that is important to keep in mind when measuring success is that while some KPIs may be different for each of the departments, some KPIs need to be coherent in order to increase the chances of success. If both sales and marketing have the same KPIs and look at the same data, then the same language can begin to be spoken.
Acquire and nurture
Research suggests that acquiring a new client is between 5 and 10 times more expensive than retaining an existing one. Marketing and sales need to work together not only in the process of acquiring new leads and closing sales, but on nurturing the already acquired clientele, through newsletters, relevant and personalized content, personalized bonus structures, etc. Leads acquired who have not yet been converted need to be nurtured as well through newsletters, Whitepaper downloads and other valuable content, so that when the time comes for them to convert, your brokerage will be at the top of their minds.
