Are you always searching for ways to achieve total integration with Sales and Marketing? Creating one unified funnel for prospects is one of the biggest challenges for digital marketers. When somebody comes to your website, either at a point of awareness or consideration through to the decision-making stage, the process should be completely seamless. During their experience, there should be no drop off point when they are passed from marketing to sales, or back from sales into marketing.
So how can you achieve ‘seamless’? Integration is key. It's about the two parts of the business seamlessly working together. Instead of having a marketing funnel and a sales funnel, you have one integrated funnel. There's no disconnect. No breakdown between the two departments.
What are the benefits of an integrated marketing funnel?
Interestingly, according to Marketo, when sales and marketing are in sync, organisations are 67% better at closing deals. This means building an organisational culture that fosters good communication lines between the two departments. In fact, the two teams should be in one department, blurring the line and making use of each other’s resources.
What obstacles are in the way for achieving ‘seamless’ integration?
Often, problems between sales and marketing departments are caused because of poor communication between the two or lack of clarity on the target. Marketing thinks they're supposed to be doing one thing and sales thinks they're supposed to be doing the other. This can actually be solved in a really straightforward way through having regular meetings and agreeing to jump targets with responsibility shared between the two teams. Accountability is key.
What can organisations do to achieve ‘seamless’?
From a marketing perspective, how does your organisation make sure your sales and marketing teams are integrated to have a comprehensive briefing process? This becomes an integral part of how your business closes a customer; clear communication lines. The sales team needs to know what's happening with each campaign, what's coming up or what’s around the corner. Likewise, the marketing team deserves the same treatment. It could be described as the ‘ying and yang’ placed at the heart of your business.
The briefing process should encourage feedback from sales on what's working and what's not so they can bring you the real life anecdotes from the field. You can use Sales as a feedback forum and shape future campaigns based on customer feedback. For example, if sales come back to report: “I keep hearing from all of my prospects that people are really struggling with lead-nurturing. It’s just dragging them down” as a marketer, it makes complete sense to then focus the next campaign on this issue. Make sure your marketing efforts are directed towards your target buyer persona. Focus on their frustrations. Develop and nurture good communication in your business activities, and listen to your customers.