The wayward relationship between Sales and Marketing is as old as business itself. Salespeople describe their colleagues as “arts and crafts creative types”, “academics”, and even occasionally “irrelevant”; marketers shoot back with “simple-minded”, “incompetent”, and plain old “lazy”.
If it sounds like sibling rivalry, that’s because it is. Much like siblings, marketers and salespeople know that they are opposite sides of the same coin and no matter how much they whine and moan, they know deep down that one can't function without the other.
If anything, this sense of inevitability only serves to heighten the rivalry. Without Sales, marketers would have no foot soldiers to take care of the leads and customers that their sales enablement content brings in, making their jobs defunct. Without marketers, Sales would have no collateral on hand, no brand to sell, and no promotion aside from networking.
Ultimately, the combined efforts of Sales and Marketing form the beating heart of a business that would simply not exist without them.
And it is for this reason that a fractured relationship between both sides can have such a detrimental impact on the success of your business. The stats back it up: when Marketing and Sales work together, companies see 36% higher customer retention, and 38% higher sales win rates.
So it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that breaking down the barriers between Sales and Marketing is just good business practice. By opening the channels for clear communication and the exchange of ideas, you can produce marketing materials that's actually relevant for the leads and customers you're trying to engage with.
Frankly, it's impossible to make effective marketing materials without input from Sales. Marketing specialists generally don't reach out to customers in person. They don't go to meetings with irate clients. They don't have to grin and bear it when they find themselves unable to sell a product because they don’t have the resources on hand to be convincing. In short, marketers can be creative as hell, but they need the grit and determination of sales to compliment their content efforts.
And more importantly when creating content, they need the insights they receive from customers on a daily basis. How else are you going to truly know who your target audience is, and what they want?
That's reason enough to start communicating, cut out the blame game, and come together to see what content is actually supporting the buyer's journey, and what's not.
After all, nothing is more frustrating for a marketer than to create content that goes nowhere. So start a dialogue with your Sales team, and address some fundamental questions:
- What are your goals, and are they compatible between both teams?
- What kind of conversations are Sales having with prospects, and how can those insights be converted into content?
- What are the buyer personas, and are they accurately up-to-date? Do you have content to appeal to each buyer persona?
- Are Sales actually using existing marketing materials? If not, why not?
A better relationship between Sales and Marketing isn't just down to the people on the ground; it's also the tools you use to get the job done. See how digital asset management can help you nail your content strategy by signing up for a DAM demo.
