Level Up Exclusive: Is Your Team Playing in the Big League?

5 Critical Best Practices for SMARKETING

Marketing and Sales don’t work together as well as you might expect. But what if you could increase your annual revenue growth by combining forces? Opening your mind to a collaborative relationship will put you in a better spot to hit your organization’s revenue goals. Welcome to Smarketing.

Smarketing is the process of aligning the marketing and sales department teams around common goals within an organization, with the goal of improving revenue. This is a key component of inbound success; a significant number of leads can be lost if you don’t effectively turn qualified leads into sales.

Here are 5 critical best practices for aligning your marketing and sales departments:

1. Marketing and Sales Must Have the Same Organizational GoalsTo be on the same page, marketing and sales have to be aiming for the same thing. If the teams are working towards different goals both will be less than efficient. In a business setting, the goal is usually to increase revenue. Think about marketing and sales like the offense and defense players of a sports team. They have two different skill sets and approaches but ultimately work together to win the game.
2. Tie You Visitor and Lead Goals With Your Sales QuotasThe sales department depends on the marketing department to deliver leads, this directly affects the success of the organization. You can’t leave your teammates out to dry in a game!
3. Marketing and Sales Must Have Visibility into Each Other’s Goals and ProgressBOTH teams need to know how the other is doing, so take the time to measure against goals and see the progress you’ve made both individually and together. Offensive and defensive teams practice together, but they both have their own goals to pace against to make it to the finish line. However, each player should know the strategy and plays to ensure they bring home the win!
4. Base Compensation on Shared Marketing and Sales GoalsIf you win the game, does one player get all the credit and glory? No, the team won the game and therefore should receive the same benefits. The same goes for an organization. Compensation can be a value tactic in the alignment of departments in an organization. If you want your employees to do the best job that they can, then you need to offer the same compensation for goals achieved. 
5. Don’t Forget About Your PersonasBoth marketing and sales teams are constantly communicating with your target audience and remember, personas evolve. So make sure everyone is up to date on new developments and details about your personas. For offense and defense to effectively and efficiently win the game, they need to know what play to run, the details of said play and what their individual role is – otherwise you could create chaos.

You alone cannot expect to integrate marketing into your organization and increase the revenue growth. It's a team effort and you must all be on board to achieve this goal. If the defensive team doesn’t give 100% in a game, then the offense team is set up to fail and vice versa. Take the same lesson and apply it to your marketing and sales departments.