It is crucial to focus on how marketing and sales can collaborate more effectively in the future and measure performance because the push and pull of these two teams can be pretty blurred, occasionally resulting in friction and stress. The first step is ensuring they have the tools necessary to enhance the future relationship between marketing and sales.
It is critical for leaders to think about the next chapter of the marketing and sales story now that the first half of the year has gone by. A strong relationship between the two teams will allow for efficient collaboration and can speed up growth rates, successfully close deals, and more. Even though making future predictions can seem scary, they are an essential step in getting ready to maximize business growth and success.
By 2025, 80 percent of B2B sales interactions between customers and suppliers will take place through digital channels, according to the 2020 Gartner “Sales Transformation: The Future of Sales Report.” Given that B2B buying patterns have been evolving toward a buyer-centric digital model, a trend that has accelerated over the past few years and is undoubtedly going to continue to evolve as a focus for both marketing and sales and leadership, this makes sense.
Even though sales and marketing have distinct roles, when they collaborate, businesses experience significant improvements in key performance metrics, such as shorter sales cycles, lower market entry costs, and lower cost of sales.
The Impact of Hybrid and Remote Work
According to Drift’s 2021 State of Conversational Sales report, 65% of sellers see a boost in sales productivity, which makes sense given that there is less time wasted on travel and workplace interruptions. It’s been more of a mix for marketers. About half claimed that working remotely had increased their level of flexibility, but that also meant that 41% of them had to learn new tools, and 39% had to hire new employees.
What strategies can sales and marketing leaders adopt to navigate this shifting landscape better and embrace the hybrid working model? It necessitates flexibility—adopting the proper technology that fosters collaboration, developing a hiring strategy that suits the new way of working, and giving people attainable goals that will help them succeed. It necessitates constant and transparent communication—the more interaction between the sales and marketing leadership, the better.
The Dynamic MarTech Environment
Marketing and sales typically make the most use of technology. After all, they are in charge of overseeing customer relations and disclosing how the activities serve overarching business objectives. With Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) as two of the biggest trends in 2022, the industry has come a long way. However, as every leader is aware, there is still no one dominant platform for sales or marketing.
In light of this, sales and marketing leaders seek straightforward integration tools that offer the right dashboards and improve one-on-one interactions. But, before adding more, a CMO should take a step back and ensure their team is effectively utilizing the MarTech tools they already have.
Focus on ROI, Metrics, and Campaign Planning
Tracking metrics has become a crucial component of marketing and sales for all companies. It’s critical for CMOs to identify sales and marketing success metrics as they start to plan their campaigns and other investments. They should also ensure they have point people, a reasonable timeline, and a clear understanding of the desired outcome for all parties.
Building more successful and efficient campaigns may benefit from identifying the key performance metrics for marketing and sales success. Executive dashboards and campaign reporting can help identify new media opportunities, messaging strategies, price alternatives, or other angles that are worth considering.
Focus on Quality
Even though sales focus more on consumer relationship-building and marketing is more focused on building competitive advantage, there’s certainly overlap. Both teams benefit when brands change in response to what customers want and need.
The organization will be in a much better position to benefit from marketing and sales success when both the teams collaborate and focus on achieving important goals like enhanced customer engagement and service.