We are talking about Sales and Marketing alignment and how best these different disciplines can combine to more harmoniously bring in customers.

Can I Buy Something?

Here’s a scenario for you. Your marketing person has befriended someone online. They want to buy something from you…what should happen? Sounds like a straight forward question…but brings up a few situations.

Your sales person is the one being paid to sell and undoubtedly would like in on the action (normally so they can get their commission) they have the skillset and experience to close out any potential deal in a quick and effective manner. Undoubtedly they will have better instincts as to how likely something is to happen too. Yet at the same time they are not the person your suspect has a relationship with, if anything it can put people off when suddenly a new voice is added to the mix.

I can remember once, I was being prospected for something. The marketing person added me on linkedin and shared content/ a chat begun until we had a half decent relationship. The day came when I needed this service and expecting a casual chat and instead showed up with the sales person and suddenly I was being hard sold to. This certainly caught me off guard and probably undid a lot of the work the marketing person had put in.

In these sorts of scenarios I would always ask the question “Who has the relationship?” and whomever that is, they should be the person to deal with that person, supported of course by the rest of the team. I think a lot of businesses actually underestimate the importance that some members of staff have just in being a recognisable point of contact.

Onboarding

Talking about communication, where sales and marketing often squabble over who should be talking to prospective customers, there is often a third voice too. This is the business itself. All too often sales people are quick to disappear as soon as the cheque has been cashed…not really thinking about the impact of actually having to deliver the services/product they have sold. This is another voice that should be kept in the loop and as ever with more people come more problems….