Learn key steps to integrating sales & marketing

Businesses that integrate their sales and marketing see an average increase in revenue of 4%. Integration isn’t a big business concept as most think. Every business, regardless of size and industry must break down any barriers that exist between their sales and marketing functions.

Here are a few practical tips and key steps to take when integrating your sales & marketing:

Be clear on what sales and marketing is in your business.

Both are vital functions that power your growth; however, most small businesses don’t see real results from their marketing efforts because the lines between the two functions become blurred when the same staff is responsible for both outcomes.

Marketing is one-to-many, and sales is one-to-one:

• Marketing tells stories and sales is where our business becomes real for the prospect and our stories come to life
• Marketing looks after the brand’s reputation and sales is relationship-driven
• Marketing needs to keep stories circulating and resonating with the target markets and sales looks after individual

Define conversion.

There are many definitions for conversion. Is it moving a contact to the next step in your process? Is it transitioning a cold contact to a warm lead? Whatever definition you choose, measure it! And those involved in the sales, business development and marketing functions of your business must be aligned.

Know your client profile in detail.

Work with your team to do a deep dive into what type of client is the best for your business and why. Be sure to document the profile and gain buy-in from every client-facing position within your organization, not just those involved in the sales & marketing functions.

This may seem extreme, but most don’t have clarity on their ideal client profile. Without clarity, lead generation and prospecting are not targeted, growing client relationships are random, and marketing is too general to influence or impact your ideal client. In most cases, this is the root cause for low close ratios, low client retention rates, and lackluster marketing results.

Communicate. Communicate. Communicate.

Most don’t think about client services or finance & accounting being involved with sales and marketing. They are. Everyone in the organization has a voice in the marketplace regardless of position. Communicate efforts, initiatives, successes, challenges, goals, and targets throughout your organization frequently. When teams are pulled together, aware and involved, better than expected results are generated.

Align goals and milestones. Sales tend to have their goals, targets, and milestones. Marketing has there’s. Marketing tells sales that they delivered XX leads last month and is concerned that sales hasn’t closed any of them. Sales is frustrated because the leads generated weren’t qualified. Marketing met their target. Sales missed theirs. When the growth strategy is set, those involved in the marketing & sales functions should build the plan together. Goals are set and milestones are defined. Each month or quarter the combined plan should be reviewed, celebrated, or realigned accordingly. This is where challenges are discussed, collaboration happens, and opportunities surface.

Only 3% are buying, which means that 97% are not.

Most people go in with their outreach for the 3% without the 97% in mind. Go after the 97%, nurture them, pull information from them, keep them in the loop, keep them always in that funnel getting information about you.

The 3%, are buying so they are going to respond to you regardless. Focus on the 97% right now and how you start a relationship. Knowing I’m probably not going to get the sale today, but how do I start that relationship with them? And then, how do I keep them in that relationship loop so that when they are ready to buy, they think about me and my organization.