Getting your marketing and sales teams to see eye-to-eye may seem like an impossible task. Sure, you know the value of both and how they affect each other’s roles, but they can’t seem to accept the fact that one can’t live without the other. By helping your marketing team to integrate better with your sales team, you can start the process encouraging everyone to play together better, a boost for growth — and morale. That’s why we asked 10 entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following:
“What’s one way to encourage your marketing team to become more familiar with sales tactics (emails, cold calls, etc.)?”
How to Get Sales and Marketing Working Together
Here’s what YEC community members had to say:
1. Set Target Goals and Perks
“I’m all too familiar with marketing teams thinking that cold calling is dead and inbound marketing is the only answer. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. If you arm them with some target goals for bringing in a certain amount of qualified leads and tie some sort of perk (likely a commission), as well as some sales podcasts, you’ll be surprised at what they can produce.” ~ Michael Averto, ChannelApe
2. Give Them Relevant Case Studies
“Case studies can be very persuasive. Find relevant successful case studies of other companies driving sales from specific tactics, then show the marketing team the highlights of how the sales tactic helped other businesses drive growth, and use that as motivation to encourage your team.” Shawn Schulze, Names.org
3. Sign Them Up for Email Lists and Demos
“The fastest way to immerse your marketing team in the world of sales is by turning them into prospects for other salespeople and having them analyzing each salesperson’s approach. Have them respond to cold emails, get on exploratory phone calls, try a product demo, read sales collateral and review proposals. Over time, they’ll realize which tactics are actually effective in converting customers.” ~ Firas Kittaneh, Amerisleep
4. Include Them on Sales Efforts
“To get our marketing team up to speed quickly, we encourage them to sit in on sales meetings or listen in on sales calls. This helps them see our process up close and lets them see how we pitch ourselves to potential clients. It expedites the time it takes to get familiar with our language and cadence.” ~ Kevin Yamazaki, Sidebench
5. Offer Firsthand Knowledge
“Giving our marketing team the task to manage the complete sales funnel of a select few clients provides them with all the information they need about how our sales team operates. By giving them the ability to reach out to prospective clients, leverage marketing collateral, nurture leads, close sales, and provide after-sales support, they also identify possible opportunities for improvement.” ~ Derek Robinson, Top Notch Dezigns
6. Lead by Example
“It is difficult to teach people who don’t have it in them to cross sell, upsell or push for new business. If your employees are not salespeople, the best way is to lead by example. The way we do this is to continuously blind copy them into emails where our sales team shows them how it is done. Then, we discuss the email within the company, showing others, by example, how it is achieved.” ~ Diego Orjuela, Cables & Sensors
7. Observe Your Conversions
“In order to create new and innovative marketing strategies, I encourage marketing teams to reflect on their habits and connect with their own conversion rates, as consumers. Walking through a new purchase or service and asking questions that sales tactics answer or address, can be very helpful. If certain sales tactics are tried and true, they should not be abandoned for bright and shiny strategies.” ~ Matthew Capala, Alphametic
8. Emphasize the Value of a Good Relationship
“Encourage personal connections between the marketing and sales teams, and stress the value of shared information on both sides. Just as marketers benefit from understanding the tactical components of the sales funnel, salespeople need the latest messaging and industry intelligence to close deals. Info and insights will be shared if your teams feel personally connected and aligned in their goals.” ~ Kevin Bretthauer, FuelCloud
9. Hire a Coach
“Investing in a sales coach who can equip your team from cold outreach to the close can pay dividends. Even the most seasoned sales superstars benefit from coaching — everyone has room to improve. A coach will familiarize your marketing team with the world of sales, while giving them more confidence in their capabilities. By connecting sales with marketing, organizations can make a bigger impact.” ~ Robby Berthume, Bull & Beard
10. Hold Weekly Presentations
“Every Friday, we have someone from the team do a presentation, teaching everyone something new about what they do. The marketing team tends to share a lot of actionable content, related to techniques. This gets everyone excited about it, and they usually do their own research afterwards on how to implement it within their role.” ~ Karl Kangur, MRR Media
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This article, “Apply These 10 Secret Techniques to get Your Sales and Marketing Teams Working Together” was first published on Small Business Trends