Practical Ways Sales and Marketing Teams Should Work Together

The antagonism between the sales and marketing teams negatively affects the return on investment (ROI) for most businesses. Bridging the gap between the two departments helps to make the identification and acquisition of qualified leads much easier. We’ve got some great ideas to help you tackle the challenge of sales and marketing alignment.

Incorporation of an account-based marketing (ABM) strategy

Account-based marketing (ABM) involves the partnership between the marketing and sales team to acquire value clients. The approach targets a specific niche in the market, with a 90% likelihood of buying various services and products.

For the method to be effective, sales and marketing must reach a consensus and agree to share the same goals in the client acquisition process. AMB's concept requires the motives both teams to coordinate. Robust communication to the high-value clients and personalisation of relationships ensures they get customer loyalty and higher ROI.

Service Level Agreements (SLAs)

A SLA is the standard of service provision that a customer expects from a business. A company needs to have performance metrics that identify the products' standards or services available to the customers. The SLA incorporation between the marketing and sales teams is a necessity.

The SLAs between the two teams need to be reasonable for both departments. Both teams need to set targets that aim to acquire qualified leads and ensure a high sales conversion rate.

Creation of buyer personas

The creation of a buyer persona is a detailed description of a target customer. The process involves the use of a fictional person who has a close resemblance to your potential customer. Your buyer persona will typically have a specific interest, demographic and behavioural attributes.
 

 

For the process to be efficient, both the marketing and sales team must collaborate and seek to identify the following:

  • Understand their target customer

The needs of the customers differ depending on many internal and external factors. Some of the aspects that differentiate the consumers' needs are: age, gender, religion, and ethnicity. Both the marketing and sales teams have to internalise the needs of the customers and respond appropriately. 

  • Segmentation of the market

For B2B and SaaS marketing to be effective, there is a need to segment the market. Targeted marketing helps in ensuring the sales cycles are shorter, and marketing costs are lower. Market segmentation is not one-sided, and both teams must understand the role they play to acquire a higher lead conversion rate.

  • Efficiency

The creation of a buyer persona helps in analysing and understanding the needs of the customers. The sales team needs to understand the pains of the consumer and address them in sales strategies. On the other hand, the marketing team must understand customers' preferences and tastes in the marketing effort. Both teams need to align and ensure they deliver the same perspective towards a specific good or service.

Advantages of marketing and sales team working together

1. Better leads

The blame game between the marketing and sales team is very detrimental in the acquisition of better leads. A working collaboration between the two ensures their primary focus is acquiring leads. The two teams need to have a standard view of various goods and services and portray that to the customers. Incorporating software that enables the targeting of value leads is the best way to ensure a higher ROI

2. A better approach to the consumers

Both teams must understand the details of a specific product or service. Working as a team ensures that campaigns are well organised, and they impress the targeted customers. This positive working relationship helps you to build trust and confidence with your buyers.

3. Better communication

Communication between the marketing and sales team is necessary. An open channel of communication ensures that both departments can share any weaknesses and strengths in the sale and marketing of products. Any team has the freedom to correct the other and adopt better methods and have a standard product focus.

4. Being competitive

Most businesses are penetrating the digital sphere to acquire more customers. In digital marketing attempts, brands position their products to attract a larger market share than their competitors. The marketing team has the advantage of reviewing how other businesses are presenting their products in the market.

The marketing department must communicate with the sales department and inform them of a smart product position and branding. Both teams must agree on a viable method of ensuring their product is presented and marketed smartly.

 

To grow your monthly recurring revenue (MRR), sales and marketing must be on the same page. The process of getting these two teams to align can be challenging, but there are established methods to help you successfully achieve this objective.

The SpotDev team of SaaS marketing experts can guide you through the process of getting this important step in your inbound marketing strategy right. We specialise in helping SaaS B2Bs create seamless customer journeys that are supported by strongly coordinated sales and marketing teams.  

The best advice that we can give you is to align your sales and marketing together around a joint goal of growing your MRR.  To help you understand exactly where your sales and marketing can be combined to great effect why not download our sales planner. It will help you clarify where you need to take action to allow your teams the best chances of success. 


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