Both marketing and sales teams are constantly striving to increase conversion, customer satisfaction and revenue, yet they don’t realise that the solution to smashing their targets lies within sales and marketing alignment.
When both teams are aligned to a common goal, communication and collaboration increases, with open ideation and knowledge-sharing making it easier for both teams to achieve their targets.
In this guide will explore how the two teams work together and the importance of sales and marketing alignment, while sharing tips and advice that will help improve marketing and sales team collaboration.
How marketing and sales work together
Since marketing and sales teams are responsible for the entire customer buying journey, it’s imperative for business performance that both teams work together to overcome core sales challenges to deliver a cohesive, engaging, customer experience.
It’s estimated that poor alignment between the two teams can lead to a loss of 10% annual revenue, while alignment can boost revenue rates by 34%. With sales and marketing alignment, not only does communication and efficiency increase, but collective ideation and sharing of insights will improve the effectiveness of future campaigns.
How to improve sales and marketing alignment
Is marketing and sales collaboration a key sales challenge within your organisation? Are you finding it difficult to bridge the gap between these two crucial departments, leading to missed opportunities and inefficiencies? If so, you're not alone. Many companies struggle with aligning their marketing and sales efforts, which can significantly impact overall business performance.
To help you overcome this challenge, we have compiled a comprehensive list of top tips and strategies designed to improve sales and marketing alignment within your company. By implementing these practices, you can foster better communication, enhance teamwork, and ultimately drive greater success in achieving your business goals.
Create KPIs and OKRs that align with each other
One of the most effective strategies to align two teams is to establish common goals that both can work towards. By setting shared objectives, sales and marketing teams can synchronise their efforts, ensuring that their priorities are not only aligned but also complementary. This alignment fosters a collaborative environment where team members are encouraged to communicate more frequently, leading to increased interactions and discussions.
As a result, they are more likely to engage in regular meetings, whether daily or weekly, to discuss progress, share insights, and address any challenges that may arise. This consistent communication helps to build a stronger, more cohesive relationship between the teams, ultimately driving them towards achieving their collective targets more efficiently.
Create customer personas
Customer personas are a great collaboration project for sales and marketing teams. Marketing teams understand who, when and where they should be targeting their messaging, while sales teams hold the detailed data around the customer. By tasking the teams with the project of building out customer personas, it’ll encourage collaboration as it will require a mixture of marketing research and CRM data. Plus, once they’re created, they’ll be a great resource to inform sales and marketing strategy.
Invest in a high-quality CRM
An advanced CRM solution such as Microsoft Dynamics 365, will unite and centralise your sales and marketing data, making it easier to spot opportunities within trends and analyse customer behaviour to improve engagement and personalisation across the customer journey.
Implement better internal communications
Whether you create a group chat, set up a weekly Teams meeting, or establish a dedicated communication platform, it’s crucial to create a dynamic and accessible space where both sales and marketing teams can regularly give updates, share innovative ideas, and offer constructive feedback. This collaborative environment not only facilitates the exchange of valuable insights but also encourages team members to engage in open discussions that can lead to creative solutions and strategies.
By fostering such a communicative atmosphere, you can significantly enhance future sales and marketing performance, ensuring that both teams are aligned in their objectives and are working together towards common goals. This ongoing dialogue helps to identify potential challenges early on and allows for the continuous refinement of tactics, ultimately driving the success of your business initiatives.
Collaborate across content creation
When sales and marketing teams operate in silos, the message conveyed to your customers becomes fragmented and inconsistent, leading to confusion and a lack of trust in your brand. This disjointed approach can result in missed opportunities and a failure to fully engage your audience. However, when these teams collaborate effectively, leveraging the same insights and shared expertise, they can take joint responsibility for the entire customer journey. This collaboration ensures that every piece of content, from initial marketing materials to follow-up sales communications, is aligned and cohesive.
By working together, sales and marketing teams can create high-performing content that not only resonates with the target audience but also delivers a unified and consistent message across all touchpoints. This consistency helps to build a stronger brand identity, fosters customer loyalty, and ultimately drives better business outcomes.
Sales and marketing alignment best practices
To ensure you unlock the most productivity and effectiveness from sales and marketing alignment within your business, here are three steps that will inform best practice:
Instil a clear communication process
Whether your business mainly shares information over email, or you prefer to create team chats in apps like Microsoft Teams, it is crucial to establish clear guidelines and protocols to ensure effective communication. Make sure employees are not only aware of when and where they should be sending and receiving any cross-team communications, but also understand the importance of timely responses and the appropriate channels for different types of information. For instance, urgent matters might require immediate attention through instant messaging, while more detailed discussions could be reserved for scheduled meetings or comprehensive email threads.
By providing training and resources on best practices for digital communication, you can help your teams navigate these platforms efficiently, reducing the risk of miscommunication and ensuring that everyone is on the same page. This structured approach to communication will foster a more collaborative and productive work environment, ultimately enhancing the alignment between your sales and marketing teams.
Create space for regular updates
Weekly meetings or team newsletters are a great way to ensure both marketing and sales teams get into a consistent rhythm of sharing the latest updates, insights, and developments with each other. These regular interactions provide a structured platform for team members to discuss ongoing projects, highlight recent achievements, and address any challenges they may be facing. By dedicating time each week to these meetings or newsletters, both teams can stay informed about each other's activities, align their strategies more effectively, and foster a culture of transparency and collaboration. This ongoing exchange of information not only helps in synchronising efforts but also encourages team members to contribute innovative ideas and solutions, ultimately enhancing the overall performance and success of the organization.
Share results and feedback
Regular feedback is the key to improving both marketing and sales performance, as it serves as a vital mechanism for continuous learning and adaptation. By establishing a routine of sharing customer insights gleaned from marketing campaigns, such as engagement metrics, audience demographics, and behavioral patterns, alongside detailed feedback from sales calls, including customer objections, preferences, and purchasing triggers, both teams can leverage this comprehensive information to refine and enhance their current strategies. This collaborative approach not only allows for the identification of successful tactics and areas needing improvement but also fosters a culture of transparency and mutual support. As a result, marketing and sales teams can align their efforts more effectively, ensuring that their initiatives are not only responsive to customer needs but also strategically positioned to capitalise on emerging opportunities in the market. This ongoing cycle of feedback and adjustment ultimately drives greater success and efficiency in achieving business objectives.
Unlock sales and marketing collaboration with Dynamics 365
Both Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and Dynamics 365 Sales offer a centralised view of real-time data, and support integration within your communication apps to boost insight and collaboration between sales and marketing teams. Discover how both platforms can transform your business alignment.
