When you were growing up, did you ever hang out with a kid you didn’t have much in common with just because your parents were friends? Circumstances forced you together, but you weren’t really friends on your own.
Sometimes that’s how the relationship between sales and marketing can feel. Both teams are central to the go-to-market strategy and share a lot of the same goals, but often feel disconnected. In fact, according to LinkedIn, 90% of sales and marketing professionals say their departments are misaligned on things like process, content, and culture.
But when sales and marketing overcome their differences and learn how they can best work together, they’re a total power couple. Organizations that make sales/marketing alignment a priority are almost three times more likely to exceed their targets for new customer acquisition and are 67% more efficient at closing deals.
So how do you help your sales and marketing teams turn from frenemies into best friends? We’ve gathered some advice from top sellers and marketers about how to turn the two departments into a dynamic duo that drives revenue.
Up your “organizational acumen” a.k.a. internal knowledge
It’s easy to want to prove yourself and show that you’re effective at what you do, whether that’s making sales calls or designing a social media post. A lot of salespeople and marketers overlook the fact that they’re not working in a vacuum. Yuval Yaar, who worked in sales development at AppsFlyer and is now the Director of Global Partner Development, suggests using “organizational acumen” to avoid this.
Organizational acumen is, as Yuval defines it, “the ability to use the know-how, experience, and influence that your organization has and to really master not just the internal processes…but to utilize what your organization has that you perhaps yourself alone don’t have.”
To put that in other terms, your organization (or, well, the people who make it what it is) has a lot to offer. There’s extra value that your efforts alone wouldn’t be able to provide. To be a top performer, you also need to be a top collaborator who understands how your company works. Figure out what processes can support you, or what knowledge and advice you can get from your colleagues.
Okay, so how does that translate to improving the relationship between sales and marketing? It’s simple. The better you get to know your colleagues in the other department and the better you understand the internal processes, the better you can work together. Your sales leaders have a lot of insights that could be useful to marketing, and vice versa. And following processes keeps things efficient instead of slapdash and reactive, making everyone happier in the long run. Plus, it can help create “a genuine relationship that benefits both sides.”
Practice knowledge sharing
Speaking of your super-smart colleagues, don’t forget to ask them what they know – and share what you’re learning too. Avi Wiesenberg has spent the last two decades in sales and business development roles and the last four years as a strategic advisor for startups (not to mention, he worked as Lusha’s CRO once upon a time). One thing he’s seen break down teams is when individual contributors aren’t encouraged to share what they’re learning. Go-to-market professionals need to understand the trends of the industry and how they fit into that wider picture. GTM teams are the leading edge of a business and constantly hear news about what’s happening in the industry, with competitors, and with customers.
Plus, sharing that insight helps you go to market better. “When you’re speaking to market leaders, the more of these bigger, macro, holistic issues in the industry are what they’re thinking about,” Avi advises. “You want to show educated, credible conversation around [these issues] and show that you’re a credible partner.”
Sales teams are in the trenches every day learning what pain points resonate with prospects. Marketing teams are doing research into the most effective messaging to reach people. Everyone in GTM is keeping up with industry changes and market trends. Doesn’t it make sense to share that knowledge? Instead of staying siloed, keep up that open communication, and you can both help each other do your jobs better.
Align on practical messaging
Sometimes marketing can get caught up in where the company wants to be and overlook where the business currently is. There’s nothing wrong with being aspirational. But sales needs practical support.
Adir Zimerman, the founder of RAINMAKERS, has spent his career helping sellers succeed. Over the last 5 years with RAINMAKERS he’s focused on helping early stage startups through GTM challenges. One thing he’s seen come up again and again is the gap that often exists between founders and sales – a gap that also extends to marketing and sales. Founders need to sell the future to investors, and the marketing department helps tell that story. But the sales team is in the trenches selling the present to customers. “It takes time to build the machine,” he says. “It takes time to reach out to the market, to find the right approach….And this is an ongoing work. It demands understanding.”
Both that future vision and the present situation are important. Adir says that companies need to “sell the future, but be pragmatic in our day-to-day.” So while marketing teams can work on packaging that future-forward messaging, they also need to collaborate with sales on how to best close that gap and help find the right approach for the present.
Open up the feedback loops
Sometimes you just have to talk it out, and that’s something that sales and marketing teams can struggle with. Inbar Yagur, Lusha’s Director of Content and Product Marketing, points out that “a lot of times teams tend to be in their own feedback loops. They talk to themselves instead of talking to each other.” And that only leads to situations where frustrations rise, but the underlying issues don’t change.
Here are some examples:
Let’s say a product marketer hears a sales call where the rep isn’t representing the company’s message well. “Instead of griping with their colleagues about how Joe’s calls are terrible, they could investigate it by talking to Joe or his boss and figuring out why he isn’t pitching marketing’s message. Sales might not know to fix the problem if marketing doesn’t flag it as an issue of misalignment.”
And what about the flip side, when sales is frustrated with marketing? For example, what if sales gets a piece of collateral from the marketing team that they’re not happy with? They can do more than just let it gather dust in Google Drive. Instead, they can go to the person who created the collateral or the team lead and give specific feedback on how the piece could be more useful.
“As long as teams only talk to themselves without opening feedback loops to each other, then nobody can improve,” says Inbar. When sales and marketing communicate, they can help each other drive revenue even better.
Realize common goals
Marketing and sales get thrown together a lot because they both play an important part in getting more revenue for the business. But while that ultimate goal is the same, they can end up focused on their separate worlds.
Inbar suggests that marketing and sales leaders should align as well as their teams. Because at the end of the day, they’re in the same boat rowing toward the same shore. If marketing is hitting their numbers but not delivering what sales needs, then that’s not a true measure of success. And if marketing can help sales serve up those revenue end goals, they’re doing a better job for themselves too.
Everybody needs to be looking at the customer acquisition cost (CAC) instead of just ROI. Let’s put it this way. If you’re in marketing and you need to bring in a certain number of demos per month, you don’t want to look at just that demo target. How many of those demos actually helped the sales team hit their targets?
Inbar gives this example:
“Say the goal is 20 demos. Last month you had 15 demos that ended in two closed deals. This month you only had 10 demos, but they ended in five closed deals. At the end of the day, marketing did better this month with fewer demos because the CAC was ultimately better.”
Sales and marketing both shine when those goals are met. So if something’s not working out, don’t pass the buck and get. defensive. Instead, sales and marketing should get together to figure out how each side could do better – and how they can each help the other do better. When one thrives by driving revenue, so does the other.
Like any relationship you want to keep, the one between sales and marketing can take a lot of work. But it’s worth it. When sales and marketing become besties, they’re an unstoppable revenue machine.
Key Takeaways:
- Sales and marketing can thrive together when they share knowledge and open up their feedback loops.
- Knowing the ins and outs of your organization’s processes (and what your coworkers have to offer) can enable sales and marketing to work together smoothly.
- Aligning on practical messaging and revenue goals ensures that sales and marketing help each other raise the bar.
See how Lusha can speed up your workflow
