The acrimonious divorce: why do sales and marketing dislike each other
It’s not news that sales and marketing frequently act as opposing foes on the battlefield. There are multiple reasons why this is. Understanding these reasons can help us to overcome them.
We can wrangle over the different personality types, with the stereotypically extroverted sales team locking horns with the more introverted marketers. But this runs far deeper than a clash of personalities.
It’s a matter of strategy, politics and opinions. All too often marketing is seen as a support role for sales, and sales swoop in and take the praise. Sales can easily be quantified. Yet behind the scenes, it’s marketing that sets things up. For example, a sales rep may close the deal, but in the background that customer was nudged along the pathway through marketing email sequences, retargeting ads, and authoritative blog posts.
Then there’s the issue that sales and marketing can all too easily slip into their own silos with different goals. These two functions should be working towards the same objectives. They should have no choice but to collaborate. Different goals results in painful organisational politics and a complete and utter lack of communication.
So what are the benefits of sales and marketing forming a cohesive unit, where they each have the other’s back?
The benefits of sales and marketing working together
There are numerous reasons why sales and marketing should be cheese and wine and not day and night. What we’re really concerned with is why it helps the customer, particularly the business’s relationship with the customer.
Understanding
Understanding the customer is the route to maximising their potential for the company. Sales actually talk to the customer. Marketers get the juicy data. Insight about what makes the customer tick needs to be fed from sales to marketing, and then back again. Leads will be more accurate with this flow of information.
Customer journeys
Having a good measure of the customer journey helps streamline actions and make effort pay off. When sales and marketing work together, to analyse the customer journey, they can make it work more seamlessly and efficiently.
Better qualified leads
Sales people can get mightily frustrated when the leads marketing have led them to aren’t great. Yet marketing can feel frustrated that it’s because sales didn’t handle the lead well. Alignment stops the frustration, and instead gets everyone working together. That helps the customer who has a highly unified experience.
Relationships
With good internal relationships (with minimal politics), you can more easily create good external relationships with customers. Communication internally is witnessed externally, and that builds customer trust. That doesn’t mean there isn’t room for feedback between the two. In fact, it’s quite the opposite; it’s about making feedback constructive and unified.
Nurture that relationship
Seriously, it’s not just about making things all warm and fuzzy in the workplace, or preventing awkward moments at an office social. HubSpot revealed that a marriage made in heaven between sales and marketing increases revenue by a staggering 208%. It really matters.
So start understanding each other’s pain points, and lead from the top, valuing sales and marketing equally, and create an internal dynamic that really benefits the customer.