We are talking about sales and marketing and how best to push these two together and ensure they play nice. We have talked about some of the practicalities of sharing information between the departments and how to get marketing in a more sales orientated mind set and vice versa. One of the core ways in which to do this is to align goals.

Sales Bonuses

One of the issues we’ve talked about in the past is that traditionally Marketing is a profession that requires some level of technical knowledge/training (for example learning how to use the software) where Sales in theory anyone could do with a basic level of training. This makes Sales often the highest paid unskilled position in any organisation. You can see why Marketing might get a bit jealous when they might put in a lot of time and effort in to creating sales materials etc and the guy who picks up the phone gets the bonus. Marketing’s goals are often very fuzzy, it’s not always so easy to quantify brand awareness or social media impact on the bottom line.  Aligning the goal of sales and marketing will certainly help change people’s mindset and will naturally get them collaborating.

So What Is Your Goal?

Something I’ve covered in great detail is that I don’t believe that the goal of Sales should be purely to bring work/custom in. There are so many factors that are completely out of your control and concentrating purely on sales encourages people to:

1. Promise/do anything to make it happen (reflecting poorly on your business)

2. Give up on relationship building and concentrate purely on today’s easiest prospects

3. Creates a competitive environment which can potentially become toxic and won’t encourage knowledge sharing.

When it comes to a more realistic goal for the two departments, I would use that list of 100 top companies you want to target and make your goal to reach as many of them as possible. It sounds like a bit broad and open, but something along these lines can combine what your two teams’ with one vision.

Smaller Goals

Underneath this of course there are any number of smaller goals. Some of the most important areas where sales, marketing and production can work together and significantly improve the bottom line, not just new customer acquisition but in reducing churn, up-selling and value growth. Let’s talk about these different aspects where closer aligned sales and marketing will have a big impact….