Bridge the gap between sales and marketing

Two roles, two job titles, two disciplines, but are they completely independent of one another? Not if you want to run an effective promotional strategy! The two are intrinsically linked and working towards the same goal – sales.

Marketing is often considered to be about promotional design, public relations and traditionally direct mail and press advertising. Even today marketing budgets are often split into these kinds of silos. However, these are just the tools forming part of a strategic marketing plan – the bit that makes it all worthwhile.

The important factor to remember here is ‘return’. Your return on any marketing investment must be carefully considered. Spending on advertising because ‘we’ve always done it’ isn’t a good reason to continue to do it. Marketing should track, assess and feedback on the success of an activity and review and refine for the future. If that means no more direct mail, then so be it!

Spending on advertising because ‘we’ve always done it’ isn’t a good reason to continue to do it.

Sales is about converting a lead – whether it has been fielded by marketing or generated cold from a call or walk-in. However, it is important to consider why a walk-in happens in the first place. Did they just wander into the marketing suite? Or did they see the carefully designed hoardings from the road or maybe see a Facebook ad and drop by for more information? Sales must still convert the prospect and no marketing can port them directly into a reservation. However, marketing can make the role of sales a little easier, enabling them to focus on their core.

Cold sales is a difficult business in our market. Identifying the right buyer directly and targeting them efficiently is fraught. Marketing enables you to fish in a larger pond, waiting for a bite which is then passed to sales for them to land. To extend the analogy further, you need the right bait to catch the right lead, too. When your marketing is attracting the best, high-quality leads, sales teams are able to focus on progressing a reservation to completion, ensuring sales targets are met.

The term ‘Business Intelligence’ or BI often comes up when considering your approach to data. Having the right data and working with it in the right way allows you to understand your marketing and sales process and make decisions based on what you see – that’s why it is your business intelligence! The right CRM system, fed by marketing and processed by sales, can deliver so many benefits to the business. A CRM allows the business full sight of the sales funnels. It allows strategy-makers to see the outcomes of any marketing (lead generation) and the sales team conversion rates (sales). If you need any further convincing that marketing sales are truly linked, then surely look no further than this.

In conclusion, even if the disciplines are separate and the teams are remote, ensuring your marketing and sales are working towards the same common goals and understand how your sales strategy relies on both performing at their peak. If you’re looking to revamp your sales and marketing strategy and would like some third party insight, we’d love to help.