Customer Service & CX

3 min read

Solving the Sales-Marketing Conundrum: 3 Strategies to Consider

Sales and marketing teams share one common goal—to increase a company’s revenue. However, the similarities stop there, as these two groups are usually very different, both in temperament and in job responsibilities.

Salespeople are relationship people with a focus on the operations and activities involved in promoting and selling goods or services. On the other hand, marketing people are a combination of analytical and creative and focused on the processes or techniques of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service.

The marketing department is also charged with generating high-quality leads for the sales team. Unfortunately, sales will often complain that marketing’s leads don’t meet their standards. This sales-marketing conundrum is a warning sign of what we call a ‘Half-Baked’ sales lead process, where there is no real strategy to manage lead transfers. To solve it, here are three strategies to consider:

1. Break Down Language Barriers: Sales and marketing departments often speak two different languages. For example, each one has its own definition of a lead. A “marketing-qualified lead” meets certain criteria set forth by the marketing department, while a “sales-qualified lead” adds to the initial stipulations set forth by marketing to help find the highest-value prospects. The first step in getting these teams to talk to each other is to begin using common terminology and agree upon what constitutes a marketing qualified lead versus a sales qualified lead.
2. Break Down Technology Barriers: Typically, the sales team works with a CRM database, and the marketing team uses a marketing automation tool. Often, these two tools are not synched, creating information silos between sales and marketing. To efficiently and effectively work together, marketing’s technology must seamlessly integrate into the CRM system used by sales, and the CRM tool must feed data back into the marketing database.
3. Break Down Methodology Barriers: There must be an agreed-upon procedure for what should happen when marketing sends leads to sales. Marketing should also have a clearly defined method for scoring leads, and sales must have a clearly defined method for qualifying those leads

Adopt a ‘Fully-Baked’ Leads Management System

According to Aberdeen, 90% of marketers say that the lack of sales and marketing alignment keeps them from reaching their marketing objectives. This can be remedied by adopting a ‘Fully-Baked’ leads management system that breaks down barriers in the form of language,  technology, and methodology – tearing down the information silos that exist between sales and marketing teams, helping your organization to achieve faster growth and higher profitability.

Do you want to learn more about the benefits of perfectly-aligned sales and marketing strategies? Download our “Dismantling the Siloes for Effortless CX” resource for more insights.

Review Your CX Strategy

If your sales and marketing teams are still at odds, you may need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture: your customer experience (CX) strategy. We recommend downloading Your CX Strategy is Failing, our free eBook that outlines the five most common pitfalls of a CX strategy and how they could derail your organization. We can also provide the tools you need to ensure your CX strategy is solid.

Sarah Friedlander Garcia As the Senior Director, Brand & Content Marketing at SugarCRM, Sarah manages a team of talented marketers focused on brand, content strategy, digital asset creation, corporate brand execution, social media, and internal communications. When not living and breathing marketing, Sarah enjoys traveling, baking, performance flute and piccolo and spending time with her family.