Ideas That Bridge Gap Between B2B Marketing and Sales

Best Practices to Bridge Gap Between B2B Marketing And Sales

 

Many B2B sales and marketing teams face difficulties in today’s consumer environment. According to a study, 68% of businesses face lead generation trouble. Marketing is frequently held responsible for the lack of high-quality leads. According to the same report, the sales team from many firms generates 70% of all leads, while marketing only contributes 30%.

A recent article from Forbes claims that 50% of B2B salespeople continually fall short of their quotas.

 

“The traditional sales cycle has evolved – a familiar arc of meeting, educating, building a use case, and closing. Suppose your reps aren’t adapting to the complexity of the modern sales cycle, driven by an ever-more-educated buyer. In that case, you will find yourself missing quotas until your bottom line falls out.” – Kurt Andersen, Executive VP of Sales and Marketing, SAVO Group.

 

The past’s most effective business development strategies, such as cold calling and broadcast advertising, are losing ground to the real-time, interactive environments established by digital marketing.

 

Why the Gap?

Why do many firms have a gap between marketing and sales?

Many companies’ sales and marketing teams typically operate separately, with little regular communication between them. In fact, about 60% of organizations do this. Businesses are losing more revenue each year due to this silo mentality.

 

What can we do about it?

You should first look into the problems with your workforce. Also, enquire about the main alignment issues faced by the sales and marketing departments. The top three obstacles provided by them are listed in Televerde’s research as follows:

  • Lack of communication
  • Measurement methods for sales and marketing success vary.
  • The qualification process for leads.

 

Getting your teams together regularly is a wonderful way to address miscommunication issues. However, if your business isn’t dealing with the underlying problems, the relationship between sales and marketing will still be unstable.

After all, both the sales and marketing departments want to accomplish their own specific goals while also helping the business as a whole to succeed. However, despite this good intent, a lack of coordination between both departments causes many projects to fall short.

 

Why to Bridge Gap between Marketing And Sales?

More knowledge of how each department functions is required from both departments. They should work together better to understand the customers’ true needs and that knowledge to fulfill shared objectives.

According to Wheelhouse Advisors, B2B businesses that connect sales and marketing had 24% quicker revenue growth and 27% faster growth over three years. Moreover, according to the Aberdeen Group, companies that align their marketing and sales objectives see a 55% higher rise in customer satisfaction ratings.

 

How to Bridge the Sales and Marketing Department Gap in B2B?

Define common acronyms and terms

To put marketers and salespeople on the same page, formal definitions of words like qualified leads, bounce rate, key performance indicators, A/B testing, ideal customer profile, click-through rate, etc., are helpful.

 

Make the synchronization of sales and marketing a part of your company’s culture.

For customers to succeed, sales and marketing must be aligned. By incorporating alignment into your culture, both teams will appreciate one another.

 

Utilize multidisciplinary teams

Remove the barriers that separate salespeople and marketers. As of 2017, B2B sales involve an average of 6.8 stakeholders in a single agreement, according to Harvard Business Review.

 

Establish the sales and marketing objectives and plans together

It’s the best strategy for gaining support from both divisions in order to achieve the eventual goal of improving the customer experience.

 

Use technology that benefits both teams.

Working together is so much simpler when everyone is using the same technology. If your teams aren’t utilizing the same technology, sharing data, nurturing leads, defining KPIs, customer conversion, and customer retention becomes much more challenging.

With a wide range of options available, there is no reason not to use technology that benefits all users.

 

After-Sale Communications

At the first sale, a prospect becomes a client, and after that, the nature of the connection changes. Building a friendship needs more communication than just asking someone out on a date.

Although a professional sales representative will already be aware of the importance of following up and keeping in touch, the marketing team can help to enhance and customize these services.

 

“Being thoughtful of each client should be a regular activity processing of orders in great detail, including mailings and shipping, special events, discounts, and other incentives. For a prompt and effective service both before and after a customer makes a purchase, internal operations must be entirely automated.” – Eugene Kasinskyy, Co-Founder, Logaster.

 

Utilize tools to assess ROI

The most precise data to link marketing activities with conversions is provided by digital tools. This is especially true for B2B sales due to the rising complexity of sales cycles.

 

Plan frequent cross-functional interactions.

The communication between teams is improved by holding regular meetings. They provide chances to talk about obstacles, track development, give both sides a voice, and acknowledge achievements.

 

Marketing departments should leverage sales feedback.

Content creation and customization are ongoing processes. Those with direct connections to prospects and clients must continuously report back on what works and what doesn’t while the marketing team feeds and enlightens sales reps.

The sales team has greater visibility than the marketing team regarding lead quality, content quality, and customer funnel flow. Reporting back to the marketing team is an essential part of their job, not an optional extra.

 

“To establish what a quality marketing lead is, marketing should collaborate closely with all sales groups, including B2C and B2B. This merely represents the top layer of the pie. The sales teams must provide feedback on the lead quality. Perhaps you need to adjust your behavioural qualifiers, for instance, to allow the lead time to develop and qualify themselves through marketing initiatives and website engagement.” – Jacob Baldwin, Search Engine Marketing Manager, One Call Now.

 

Conclusion

Your business does not need to be divided regarding marketing and sales. With shared objectives, an understanding of who is responsible for what, technology that works for everyone, and regular meetings to promote communication, you can get your marketing department and sales teams on the same track. Watch your company culture and bottom line improve.