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4 MIN. READ
If you haven’t even heard of smarketing yet, your company definitely needs this type of sales and marketing alignment. In fact, it should be your top priority.
This approach breaks down the siloes between sales and marketing, combining the two related functions into one powerful, revenue-producing team. Worldwide, retaining the current silo model costs companies an estimated $1 trillion per year. Marketing produces content that is not being used, and sales either doesn’t receive marketing-generated leads or doesn’t know how to best approach the customer.
Ask any salesperson, and they will say that sales is the most important position in the company because it drives revenue. Ask any marketer, and they will say that marketing is the most important position in the company because their words drive the leads.
Smarketing relies on putting egos aside and realizing that the two teams are intertwined. A combined approach of sales and marketing, with each recognizing and appreciating the strengths of the other, produces higher-quality marketing materials and higher-dollar sales closures.
Much like any business relationship, sales and marketing alignment happens through time spent together, learning about the processes and struggles of each department. You can encourage this symbiotic relationship in a number of ways, such as:
• Conducting weekly/monthly meetings together to discuss shared objectives.
• Job shadowing, where a member of the sales team spends the day designing material with marketing and a member of the marketing team spends the day helping to close sales.
• Aligning marketing offers such as discounts or promotional items with the sales team, leaning on their insights into customer needs and buying patterns.
The goal of smarketing is for each team to develop empathy for the other, to see things from one another’s point of view.
Smarketing allows your company to better use the tools you already have. Resources like graphic designers, traditionally used by marketing, are also useful for the sales team when designing presentations.
Your CRM (client relationship management system) is also an invaluable tool for sales and marketing alignment. As leads enter the funnel, whether through sales or marketing, both teams can track the potential client’s progress through the system and work together to nudge them towards purchasing your product.
Working with a trusted data provider that delivers all of the relevant information about a given company is the foundation of any sales and marketing campaign.
Even before COVID-19 halted most in-person meetings, 63% of buyers had already started researching their purchases online. Buyers already have a good idea of the pros and cons of each offer.
What they may not have is a seamless purchasing experience.
Sales and marketing alignment in the cyber purchasing marketplace can be your time to shine if you can provide such an experience to your prospective and current clients. B2B companies are highly invested in technology’s ability to elevate their smarketing campaigns, given that predictions indicate that as much as 80% of B2B interactions will occur digitally by 2025.
AI assists both your sales and marketing teams in determining where to look for your most likely prospects and what information will most likely pique their interest. For new prospects, that information may come in the form of a social media post from a current client praising your product or from a blog about a common pain point that your product solves.
For current clients, that information may come in the form of upselling. Your records may show that a particular client purchased a certain item from you a few years ago. Your latest iteration of this product may contain upgrades that would greatly increase your client’s bottom line by decreasing their manufacturing costs.
Your new smarketing team can create the ideal communication to fit either scenario, converting your potential clients into lifelong relationships and increasing your current client involvement.
Sales and marketing have long relied on one another to complement your company’s image and bottom line. Once aligned, your new smarketing team can take your company to the next level.
Looking for quality data to help strengthen your sales and marketing? See our infographic on what to expect from a quality data provider.
Article Sources:
https://www.superoffice.com/blog/sales-marketing-alignment/
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/tried-and-true-sales-marketing-alignment
https://www.leadwithprimitive.com/blog/sales-and-marketing-alignment
https://www.industryselect.com/
https://chiefexecutive.net/5-trends-that-will-impact-sales-craft-in-2021/
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