In Case You Missed It: Sales and Marketing Alignment

Inbound ’13 – Building a Passionate Marketing and Sales Team

If you missed Inbound ?13 this year, then you missed not just the beautiful city of Boston, but the inspiring and innovative speakers who HubSpot once again gathered in the Convention Center to continue to inspire and pave the way for Inbound Marketing.

Liz McCellan, Vice President of Field Marketing for PGI stressed the importance of aligning Sales and Marketing.? It?s not always pretty; Marketing has one way of doing things and Sales usually thinks something completely different. However, when you can align the two and incorporate both on the same team and not as two different departments, good things happen for everyone. This equals a successful business.

Smarketing Ain’t Easy

Aligning Sales with Marketing, also known as Smarketing – a term coined by Dan Tyre at HubSpot, is not an easy task. It cannot be done in one day. It?takes time and hard work from both departments.

It is important to gather results to establish a baseline and you must understand why you are winning and why you are losing.? If the leads that marketing is sending to sales aren?t qualified, then it?s important for Sales and Marketing to come together and figure out what sales is looking for.

Have the sales team get in the field.? Marketers can?t blame everything on sales, just because you are sending them leads, doesn?t necessarily mean if Sales isn?t closing them, it?s Sales’ fault.? Marketers can?t? be lazy, get in the field with your sales team.? Get on Sales calls, listen in on Sales calls.? You can?t be an effective marketer if you can?t relate to what your Sales team is doing.? And your Sales team will be much more appreciative knowing that Marketing actually cares what happens to a lead.

Get On Board: Building the Team

So, how you do you build this team of passionate, revenue marketers?? First and foremost, if people aren?t on board with the mission, get them off.? It sounds harsh, maybe it is harsh, but you can?t have a strong team if you have teammates who don?t want to be there.? Your team DNA is crucial, you need to mesh the right attitudes, mind frames, and willingness to work hard of everyone on your team.

Invest in your team.? Fight for your team.? Find out what motivates your team.? Maybe it is raises, everyone wants more money, but maybe a half day off after a really good week reminds your team that you notice they are working hard for you and you want to reward them.? It would be great to pay a great team an infinite amount of money, but finance doesn?t always work like that.? Find alternatives to reward your team and let them know you have a vested interest in their success.

Be honest and communicate with your team.? You will find that a team is much stronger when there is trust and communication.? They might not always like what they hear, but they should know the truth.? When sales are good and ROI is up, let them know. ?So, when sales are bad and things aren?t going as well, they don?t just always hear the negative.

Finally, recognize that everyone on your team is not going to be the same.? Here are some traits of teammates you want to make sure you have:

• Cheerleader😕 You want that person that keeps everyone motivated and loves to be at work.? You need someone happy all the time and always looking at the positive.
• Relationship Builder😕 There has to be a teammate who can find the relationships, build the relationships, and keep the relationships.
• Analytical Marketer😕 Not everyone wants to analyze data and not everyone is good at it, but someone has to do it.? Make sure you have an analyzer on your team.
• Get It Done Type😕 This person might not be the best at strategy and might not be the most personable, but at the end of the day, if a task needs to get done, this teammate will do it?always.

A great team that is aligned with sales will grow your business, so get rid of people of the people on your team who are not on board with this and grow the best Inbound Marketing Team you can!

Marketing Matters Inbound?is an inbound marketing firm specializing in online conversions, content?strategy, PPC campaigns and traditional media placement. Our experience in?B2B digital?marketing?and?traditional media?allows us to deliver results through a strategic media mix. We believe in?aligning and merging marketing and sales/operations for optimal return on your marketing investment.