Marketing and Sales: 3 Tips to Better Collaboration

It's no secret that Marketing and Sales are often two completely different worlds. These departments differ from each other in many respects: from the way they work, define and achieve goals to their perspectives on business.

Over the past three years, I have met and worked with dozens of representatives from Marketing and Sales. I have conducted trainings and workshops as well as been involved with project management on both sides. Because of these experiences, I am able to identify three main reasons for the conflicts that arise between these departments.

In this article, I share insights and answers to the question, “Why do Sales and Marketing have it in for each other?”

Also, do you want to know what factors most often contribute to conflicts? In that case - I invite you to read on!

 Reason 1: Marketing and Sales have different roles and goals.

This is no secret … The fundamental reason for conflict between Marketing and Sales is simply the difference in duties. These departments perform different tasks, use different tools and thus perceive business issues (such as indicators and targets) completely differently.

Many salespeople believe that while they are doing demanding, stressful and very strenuous work, marketers are actually “playing on social media" or doing other "light and fun" tasks. The marketer holds similar beliefs. They believe they are responsible for all the hard work and salespeople only have to close the deal.

Reason 2: Marketers and salespeople have different vocabularies.

Another important factor that only "adds fuel to the fire" and divides the two divisions even more are the differences in vocabulary. You don't have to look far for an example — the use of the word “lead”. The definition of a lead differs depending on if you ask a marketer or a salesperson. 

Most marketers define a lead as obtaining the contact details of a person (name, telephone number, e-mail address) who may be only potentially interested in a given offer. By ‘potentially’, I mean not only people who actually consider buying a product or service, but also people who leave their data in exchange for a gift — such as an e-book or access to a webinar. It is not certain here whether the customer wants to be in contact with the salesperson (if the form does not require it).

Salespeople are on the other side of the fence. For them, the lead is the customer who wants to meet and is interested in contacting them.

The most common situation that divides Sales and Marketing is the delivery of the so-called hot leads to Sales that are "hot" only in the eyes of Marketing. Expectations for this type of contact from the salesperson’s point of view are very high. For them, receiving an hot lead is tantamount to a bonus on sales 😉.

Working as a salesperson myself, I used to think that a hot lead was a potential client that just need to be “pushed”. Imagine my surprise when I found out that one of my webinar generated 600 leads — 600 meetings were arranged in my head as a result of the webinar!!

Reason 3: Both Sales and Marketing are brooding over their "sins" of the past

As a result of the differences described above, issues from the past pile up and make it more difficult to resolve mutual grievances — causing an even deeper divide. On one hand, Sales perceives Marketing as providing poor quality leads with which nothing can be done, thus creating frustration and resulting in a bad reputation for marketing professionals. On the other hand, Marketing is convinced that the lack of results is the fault of Sales because they are unable to take advantage of their own sales opportunities. "fat cats" vs "only costs" and so on ...

Are such conflicts a "path with no exit"? Or maybe there are effective solutions that will turn these conflicts into a success for the entire organisation. Below are some tips for you that illustrate how the cooperation of Marketing and Sales can move into a completely new, different and positive dimension!

3 Tips to Better Collaboration

Tip #1: Start with a meeting that clears the air —speak freely and work out common goals. Lay the proverbial “cards on the table" and explain misunderstandings from the past in order to start a new chapter of cooperation with a completely clean page. Let everyone say what they have to each other. Let it all out!

Tip #2: Establish common definitions and parameters.

Specify the following from the very beginning:

• What are the parameters of the ideal customer for the company (industries, locations, company size)? Also, remember that the ideal customer needs to be specific as well as quantifiable in order to be useful in building filters for social media campaigns.
• What roles/personas in the organisation influence decisions? Who should we take into account in sales activities? It is important to determine whether a given person is an initiator or a brake in the purchasing process.
• What kind of problems, challenges and goals do Sales and Marketing have?

Lead – registrations from the webinar (i.e., all contacts who, for example, downloaded the e-book or registered for the webinar).

MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) — webinar registrations in accordance with the customer and persona profiles.

SAL (Sales Accepted Lead) — customer qualified for the "heating up" status (consistent profile, consistent persona, but not ready to buy). Qualification takes place as a result of a telephone conversation with the salesperson/person dedicated to qualifications.

SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) — qualified as sales potential in a short period of time (e.g., less than 6 months). Qualification takes place as a result of a telephone conversation with the salesperson/person dedicated to qualifications.

NB: If a company uses the Marketing Automation system, definitions should be adapted to the possibilities offered by the tool.

Tip #3: Write an internal SLA that includes information such as:

• Parameters of leads taken by salespeople;
• The maximum time salespeople have to create/take a lead;
• The method of reporting as well as elements that should have reports as part of the results on the leads received.
• A sample report may contain such data as how many MQL leads sales converted into SQL and/or how many of them ended with sales.

What kind of feedback does Marketing expect? For example, which leads were the most interesting and why? How did the talks go? What additional information does sales need in subsequent campaigns? What were the reasons for the rejection of selected leads?

You can read about an example of what a professional and well-coordinated cooperation between Marketing and Sales in the Enterprise area looks like through my documented experience at Dell Technologies. To do so, please read the latest series of articles by Marcin Morawski (Country Marketing Manager Dell Technologies). You can find them on Marcin's profile.