7 tips for better collaboration between marketing and sales

Both teams are responsible for promoting an offer and acquiring customers. Sales and marketing play a vital role in the company. The marketing department is responsible for promoting the brand image and attracting prospects. The sales department then takes over and takes care of the sales, meets qualified leads and ensures post-sales follow-up.

Although they occupy very complementary functions, these two departments are not always in a collaborative mode. A study conducted by CMIT, Nomination and ISM in 2019 reveals that only 8% of companies surveyed have their sales and marketing teams work together. Acceleration of the sales cycle, smooth customer experience, harmonious and precise editorial line: a collaboration between these two departments is however essential and has many advantages for a company!

Sweet show reveals its 7 tips to learn how to better collaborate between marketing and sales and generate more leads!

1. Agree on the specific and common objectives to be achieved

The goal of the sales and marketing teams is to acquire leads and customers. To do this, it is essential that they define common goals together, including:

• sales objectives such as the number of appointments to be obtained, the number of leads to be generated or sales to be made;
• SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realizable and Time-bound) objectives such as the number of visitors to be reached on the site in one month or the number of leads to be generated over the next two months. 

Both teams should also clearly define their respective roles, as well as specific objectives and actions for each. In order to see if the objectives have been reached and to measure the results, it is also important to define common KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), such as the lead to customer conversion rate. These indicators will allow the sales and marketing teams to work together to find areas of improvement to get more customers. 

2. Agree on the language to use in terms of lead 

The main mission of the marketing teams is to detect which leads are qualified, i.e. those that are likely to go on to purchase, in order to pass them on to the sales teams at the right time. To do this, the two departments must define together what the criteria for qualifying a lead are and have the same idea of what a qualified lead is. Finally, they need to have a common vision of the lead cycle in the buying journey. The two teams must adopt a common language to communicate better. 

The criteria for qualifying a lead are different from one company to another and can be defined in relation to : 

• contact information (age, position in a company, etc.); 
• the contact's behavior (downloading a white paper, consulting product prices, etc.). 

Adopting a common language will allow you to define an efficient lead management process and to establish an essential distinction between contacts that are the responsibility of marketing teams and those of sales. Each team will have its own objectives and responsibilities in the different stages of the lead. In order to properly process lead information and know exactly when to pass it on to sales, marketing teams can also rely on the lead scoring. It consists in giving a score to the leads in order to measure their progress in the sales process.

3. Write a Service-Level Agreement (SLA) 

To promote good collaboration between the various departments, it is essential to draft a Service-Level Agreement. This formalized charter lists the commitments, obligations and common and specific objectives of each of the two teams. You can also write down the qualification criteria for a lead that you have defined beforehand. It is a key document to be shared between the different members of the two departments in order to guarantee a real alignment. 

4. Hold regular meetings to share information

A good collaboration between sales and marketing depends above all on good internal communication! For this, both departments must organize regular meetings that will allow them to : 

• measure the results of their joint actions;
• see where both parties are in achieving their goals;
• share ideas, processes and knowledge;
• keep up to date with acquired clients; 
• ensure the effectiveness of the actions implemented; 
• take into consideration the expectations, needs and recommendations of the other department. 

This type of meeting is also an opportunity to re-evaluate the effectiveness of the objectives set up and to refine them if necessary in a common agreement. By exchanging regularly and taking into consideration the specificities of the other department, the sales and marketing teams will be coordinated, aligned and therefore more efficient. They will be able to work together in a favorable climate. 

5. Take into account the expertise of sales people in the inbound marketing strategy

For the marketing department, inbound marketing Inbound marketing is now a key part of the lead acquisition strategy. This technique consists of creating relevant and persuasive content in order to naturally attract prospects to an offer. For this strategy to be effective, marketers' expertise on customer expectations, concerns and needs must be taken into consideration. Marketers should draw on the sales pitch to create quality content to accelerate the sales process. For example, they can accompany them to customer meetings to better understand customer motivations and barriers. It's also important for salespeople to be informed about the details of offers and new products by the marketing department. These exchanges will ensure a harmonized sales pitch with prospects throughout the sales process! 

6. Centralize data 

Both marketing and sales teams are actively involved in acquiring customers and prospects. Therefore, it is very important that they work from a common database that will facilitate their collaboration and communication. By centralizing lead data, both departments can be alerted to the lead's progress in the buying process and benefit from key information about individual leads. The analysis of this common data will also show which strategies worked best! The more centralized the data, the easier it will be for both teams to collaborate, provide persuasive content and generate leads. 

7. Use Sweet show: the essential tool for a good collaboration between sales and marketing! 

To tighten the links between sales and marketing, the use of a sales support tool like Sweet Show is essential! With this application, you will benefit from an always up-to-date content base to ensure a harmonious discourse during the entire sales cycle on the marketing and sales side. Both teams will also be able to analyze, centralize and store key data on all prospects and customers to ensure a real teamwork. Our tracking tool allows you to analyze the lead journey and ensure that the right leads are passed on to the sales team at the right time. 

Sweet Show integrates perfectly with the sales and marketing teams and guarantees a perfect alignment between the two departments! Each department will have a platform that suits it: 

• a content delivery platform on the marketing side that allows targeted marketing materials to be delivered, access to feedback from sales presentation activity and analysis of sales materials; 
• a sales presentation application that centralizes all sales materials and sales pitches. 

Want to know more about our sales support tool? Request a free demo!