How these two complementary teams should work together
Marketing and sales go together like ketchup and mustard, but sometimes these two arms of the business can compete with one another. Although marketing and sales are designed to work together for best results, it’s sometimes hard to distinguish one from the other. Do you know the difference between marketing and sales? Let’s start with the basics…
Define Marketing and Sales
Marketing is defined as “the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising”, whereas sales gets the more straightforward definition of “the act of selling”. The bottom line is that marketing should feed sales. The most critical step in filling your sales funnel is attracting potential customers. This is where marketing takes the lead in the sales and marketing relationship. Marketing takes a broad look at customer relationships, which paves the way for future sales.
Key Roles and Objectives
The mandates for sales and marketing are quite different, so it’s important to clarify each department’s responsibilities. As leaders, it’s often easy to put the focus on sales only, while ignoring marketing. Don’t fall into this trap. If you do, you’ll find that you have compromised the long-term prosperity of your company. These roles should be allocated to the respective departments:
- Prospecting – Marketing
- Conversion – Marketing first, then Sales to close the deal
- Buying Experience – Sales
- Saying Thanks/Relationship Building – Marketing and Sales
- Retention – Marketing and Sales
The Marketing and Sales Cycle: Closing the Loop
Marketing is subjective. Although there are measurements, it is not always easy to directly quantify results. The job of marketing is to keep a strong brand out in the marketplace and to generate leads for sales. Sales’ job is to close the business. It is not uncommon for there to be some tension between sales and marketing as they are both trying to achieve the same goal—new customers—but the method by which they obtain these leads are often very different. Closing the loop by integrating marketing with sales is essential to run an effective business. This means clear and constant communication. Whether you choose to invest in a customer relationship management system (CRM) or you develop an internal system of keeping both departments in the loop, each one must know the status of a lead/customer at any stage of the sales cycle.
How to Use Both Effectively
So, how do marketing and sales feed each other? In order to work arm in arm harmoniously, they must provide feedback to one another. Sales should be providing feedback to marketing about what works and what doesn’t. Marketing should get out in the field every once in a while to understand the life of a salesperson and what they can do to support sales and create a strong brand. The key word here is integration. One cannot fully function without the other, so make sure there are clear lines of communication, responsibilities and channels for improvement between the two.
Marketing and Sales for Small Businesses
You may be thinking, “Marketing and sales? I have one person doing both!” This is not uncommon for small businesses. You may even be outsourcing some of your efforts. Again, it is important to define roles and responsibilities, even with one person managing both. Once these responsibilities are more clearly defined it makes it easier for that person to prioritize and balance their dual roles rather than let one take center stage. And, if you are managing both in house, remember you must always be marketing, even if it feels like you only have time for sales. It doesn’t matter what stage your business is in—marketing is important. You may tend to forget this when things are good and leads are rolling in, but the second you stop marketing is the second your brand becomes stale. Keep things fresh! And, if your budget is tight, here are some low- and no-cost marketing tricks that will help you grow without going broke.
Do you need help establishing your internal departments? Do you have a jack- or jill-of-all-trades that needs some clarification on their role? The Alternative Board-Denver West can help. Get in touch with me to get started.
By Blair Koch
