Why Marketing Should Never Forget Sales?

“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service
fits him and sells itself.” - Peter F. Drucker.

Marketing and sales go hand in hand, and sales is an indispensable part of marketing since it
directly affects the overall brand image of any company. Wouldn't it be disappointing if you line
up all the finest products of your company or the services and people do not buy them?
Sometimes even after providing excellent services, customers fail to experience it and leave
negative feedback about your product or service. Indeed, it is extremely important to properly
establish a business along with proper marketing. If you want your business to flourish, then
you will need to have a good marketing strategy, only then customers will be attracted towards
your company.

Just like that, sales are also important and the sales department of any organization has to
perform well since it affects the success of a business. One of the significant roles of sales is to
mend the gap, which is present between the products as well as the needs of regular
customers. Sales play a significant role in the establishing a relationship based on loyalty and
trust between a business and a customer. According to a recent survey, 60% of customers wish
to connect with the business during the consideration stage, when they have made a list of
what they wish to buy.

You might have noticed that the reviews, as well as recommendations, play a significant role,
especially for the customers. The reason behind this is because once you are sure about the
product only then you will purchase it. In the era of digitization, reviews and ratings are of grave
importance. But, did you ever think that why both marketing as well as sales work equally and
the reason behind their importance? Sales, as well as marketing, have the same target, which is
to keep the business secured and supporting it to grow further.

If a company has the right alignment between marketing as well as sales then it will yield about
32% more revenue, 36% more customers, 27% quick revenue growth, as well as 38% high win
rates. According to a recent study, it has been found that organizations that have strictly
aligned sales as well as marketing functions enjoys about 36% high retention rates for the
customers. Also, aligning both sales as well as marketing leads to about 38% high win rates for
sales.

Importance of both sales and marketing to work together

The problem of effective alignment between marketing as well as sales is age-old. Even though
both of them do share similar business goals, but most of the times they do not work
collaboratively. You might have seen that most of the times marketing people point fingers on
the sales department for not availing the advantages of the leads, which they generate.
Whereas, on the other hand, the sales team blames marketing for not coming up with quality
leads. Sales and marketing alignment can help the company become 67% better in the field of
closing deals.

Marketing should never ignore sales because it helps in bringing a huge amount of revenue.
You must be aware of the fact that business success depends completely on metrics. According
to the Harvard Business Review, if the marketing and sales work collaboratively, then the key
metrics improve effectively. As per one of the reports by LinkedIn, about 58% of the marketing,
as well as sales professionals, depict that collaboration helps in making better customer
retention. In another study done by Aberdeen Group, companies that efficiently optimize sales
and marketing relationship helps in the growth of the revenue by 32%.

Different ways by which both sales and marketing can work together

There are numerous ways by which both marketing and sales can help a business to grow and
implementing these ways in your business can help in the overall growth, which will yield better
profit as well as revenue. Here are some of the ways by which sales and marketing can work
collaboratively for changing the overall scenario of the working of a business.

Collaborative working on relevant contents

The marketing team is responsible for making contents depending on the market analysis,
promotion strategies as well as the industrial trends. Such contents are mostly used for sales
proposals. It has been found in one of the studies made by Aberdeen, the companies that have
poor marketing, as well as sales alignment, faces about a 4% decline in the revenue. In yet
another survey done by Forrester, it has been found that about 46% of the marketers that have
mature and better lead management come with sales teams, which help in creating marketing
leads of about 75%. Due to this reason, sales help by sharing all the 'real-life' insights mostly
with the marketing team to make sure which content will be effective and in which stage. As a
result, it becomes easy for making effective content creation, thus eliminating various
unforeseen problems.

Regular communication and utilizing customer feedback

It is vital that the sales and marketing team establish a line of communication. Managers also
need to create an environment where the two teams can share information freely without
friction occurring. Social events are a great way to know each other outside the office scenario,
where people are more likely to talk openly and freely. People bonding outside work creates
lasting relationships that make communication easier and helps both teams function better.
Collaboration tools can be utilized to help the two teams work together for a common cause.
These tools act as platforms where members of both teams can share ideas and information.
This increases efficiency of communication and helps the teams get their work done faster. The
content creation process is the responsibility of the marketing team, but there is no reason why
the sales team cannot pitch in and share some of their ideas. When information is freely shared
on both ends, it improves communication and the team members are more comfortable
working with each other.

Lead scoring is important

Both sales, as well as the marketing team, should have a regular conversation regarding lead
conversion. It is important to focus on things that are working, a person who is working on it,
etc. Proper creation, as well as the conversion of SQL and MQL and finally winning deals, should
always be the target and due to this reason, it is necessary to find out the things that are
working and the ones that are not. It has been found that the companies that have ‘dynamic,
marketing processes as well as adaptable sales reported for an average of 10% more sales when
compared to other companies. It is important for both the sales as well as the marketing teams
to make one system, which is important both for scoring as well as evaluating. Also, the entire
system is conditional and is completely based on the product, buying cycle as well as the
audience.

Arrange for regular meetings

If you think that an efficient department does not need to organize meetings and have
meetings, then you are wrong. Even the most efficient team and department require real-time
for complete and efficient development of internal relationships. Therefore, make sure that you
arrange for regular meetings between the sales as well as the marketing team so that you can
talk about the new strategies, go through the outcomes of the campaigns and know more in
detail about the various processes. Through this, you will be able to inculcate the importance of
co-working of sales and marketing in the mind of the employees.

Closing Thoughts

Therefore, both marketing and sales should work collaboratively since one affects the other and
is inversely proportionate. Effective working of both departments will help your businesses to
get a better profit and revenue, which is the only way of reaching success.