Strategies for Effective Marketing-Sales Collaboration: A Guide for Marketers

How do you ensure marketing and sales alignment? What strategies do you employ to secure approval and support from the sales team for the marketing campaigns?

Aligning marketing and sales is a significant challenge in marketing-related activities within a company. Marketers of all levels and functions face this challenge multiple times. Some companies collaborate smoothly between marketing and sales, while others face constant conflicts.

To better understand how to improve the working relationship between marketing and sales, it's important to explore and structure the company's processes properly.

Let's first identify which process is the most important in the company or the "main process."

Different departments or functions may advocate for various processes based on their roles. For example, finance, accounting, product, sales, marketing, or HR could be vital. Alternatively, one might argue that the processes directly involved in generating revenue, such as product development, sales, marketing, and business operations, are the most crucial.

While this perspective holds some truth, the ultimate answer lies in SALES.

When considering a commercial business whose primary objective is revenue generation, the answer becomes clear: the sales process is the most important.

The sales process is the most crucial process within any profit-generating company. So, it's considered to be the main process.

Obviously, a company cannot sustain its existence without sales bringing in revenue. Therefore, all other processes (considered sub-processes) exist to support sales in accomplishing the primary company goal of generating revenue.

Understanding this fundamental principle facilitates aligning all other processes, including marketing, minimizing miscommunication, and unpleasant workplace situations.

However, this does not diminish the significance of the marketing role. In a real economic environment, sales cannot thrive without marketing support. Market research, product strategy, campaigns, events, digital promotion, content creation, and numerous other marketing components contribute to sales and revenue generation.

To determine whether your marketing processes are aligned with sales, ask yourself: Does it contribute to the success of sales efforts? Does it help sales to close deals? If your marketing activities fail to support sales, they are not the right processes or activities.

To align all marketing processes with sales, marketers must communicate and negotiate all marketing plans and activities with the sales team to obtain their buy-in or approval.

Some marketers avoid these steps, merely informing the sales team about ongoing campaigns. However, this approach is not the wisest. If the sales team remains unaware of your plans or actions, it leads to a lack of trust in marketing. This situation inevitably results in strained cross-functional relationships and adversely impacts the company.

Another aspect to consider is when sales seek approval for every element, including layouts, creative strategy, ad copy, and more. So, where to draw the line?

Such problems may arise due to a lack of trust in marketing resulting from historical misalignments between marketing and sales, as described earlier. Alternatively, it may occur when sales desire to contribute to creating marketing campaigns. This phenomenon is not uncommon in many companies.

From a marketing standpoint, the key lies in knowledge sharing and open discussions.

Marketing indeed supports sales, but marketers are professionals who possess expertise in their field and strive to assist sales in achieving their objectives. While it is important to listen to sales suggestions, it is equally crucial to provide reasoned arguments, preferably supported by data, if you think that a proposed campaign, for instance, would be the most effective in driving sales. Take ownership of your marketing activities and share your results with the sales team. When they witness your valuable assistance, they will trust your expertise and rely on your opinion in the future.

Here is an example of actionable steps for marketers to align with sales and gain their support:

1. Initiate a discussion about the strategic marketing plan

Engage in conversations with the sales team to gather their insights on customer feedback, challenges they face during sales, factors contributing to successful and unsuccessful deals, and gain insights on the areas where your plans should focus. This open dialogue provides valuable firsthand information to assist you in developing an effective marketing strategy.

2. Align on tactics and specific campaigns

Share draft plans with the sales and other stakeholders, welcoming their feedback. Don't hesitate to showcase areas that may need refinement. This approach will gather valuable feedback and also foster trust. Address any concerns they raise and make necessary adjustments before launching any campaign.

3. Share detailed information about upcoming campaigns

As you approach the launch of campaigns, provide the sales team with comprehensive details, including the creative strategy, content assets, promotion channels, timing, etc. Ensuring sales have access to all necessary assets (brochures, sales kits, scripts, presentations, etc.) to help leverage the marketing campaign effectively.

4. Report results and suggest improvements

Regularly communicate the marketing campaign results to the sales team during and after completion. Sharing concrete data will establish trust in your role as a marketing professional. Additionally, seek feedback from the sales team and gather customer reactions. This practice provides valuable insights and helps determine if the campaign effectively supports sales efforts. If the results are positive, incorporate them as best practices going forward. If discrepancies occur between actual and forecasted outcomes, prepare an analysis, discuss with sales, and propose suggestions for improvement in future campaigns.

These simple steps can be easily implemented in your work.

Remember, we are all human beings, and practicing open and timely communication can assist us in resolving conflicts and handling challenging situations in most cases. Maintain professionalism, foster open discussions, share your plans and results, and you will achieve alignment with sales while providing valuable marketing support.