The marketer, the salesperson and the golden thread

The sales department and the marketing department. Forever having back and forth conversations about ‘Ask them how they’ve heard of us!!!!’ and ‘You forgot to tell us about this promotion!!!’. You get the jist, it’s a fiery relationship between two very strong departments.

So what do you do when two things become separated? You stick them back together. Not with any old adhesive however – these two powerful teams need to be stitched with a thread of golden data. Intertwine them together in a sea of harmony and understanding. Well good data will make it work anyway, bad data will most likely create world war three so let’s not go there.

What does good quality data mean for sales?

Marketing generates the leads that sales finalise and close. Using data solutions means that the data from the leads is of the highest quality – saving time and money in the sales department. So, for example, if marketing implements data validation into their lead capture – only correct details will be input into the CRM system making the sales team’s lives much easier as they’re not faffing around with incorrect numbers or names, or trying to call companies that never existed.

Or, a good old data cleanse by marketing can really sort out a naff database. Think back to when you were younger and you bought a new pencil case and stationary for school; all your pens would be in one section, as would your pencils, colouring pens etc. This is how the database would be: organised without duplicates, incomplete records or incorrect, outdated records. Again, when the sales team come to contact leads, they’ll be presented with a beautiful database and can be sure they’re contacting the right person. If that’s not a way of making friends then I really don’t know what is.

Debbie Sweeney, ISMM Sales and Management trainer & Course Designer at Solutions2Success said “Regardless of what system you use to manage your customer information you need to ensure it is accurate and up to date before you conduct any marketing or sales activity. When making sales calls, or sending sales related emails to prospects or existing customers you need to ensure you follow the 3 R’s rule. Right time, right person and right message. This will ensure you have greater success with your sales activities and enhance your sales result. Working with inaccurate customer data not only makes you look and feel unprofessional it can also de-motivate you because you know you are wasting time or getting negative responses from the people you call’’

Okay, so how does this benefit marketing?

A tidy CRM which the sales team constantly updates with further information about clients can lead marketing to be able to perform detailed analysis. This gains deeper customer insights and nurture potential customers with informative, personalised campaigns relevant to the client.

Sales can input information that influences marketing’s campaigns and determine which previous campaigns have been most successful and which could really do with improving. Of course in turn, improved campaigns will generate more accurate leads (as with the data solutions there’ll be no more dodgy leads captured) which are then passed on to sales to complete. Round and round this process goes with each department helping out the other. Now how’s that for a business utopia?

Emmy Lippold, Marketing Manager at Data8 said Emmy Lippold, Head of Marketing at Data8 said “the relationship between sales and marketing is critical to the organisation’s overall success. Having good quality data in CRM and marketing automation systems not only helps with personalised and accurate communications but also in making important business decisions.”

So. There’s a small insight into the sales and marketing utopia that many businesses struggle to create and utilise correctly. Remember that both teams share a common goal (£££) and need to work together to achieve it. It all sounds like a very inspirational presidential speech – “we must unite, not as people…but as a nation!” Bla bla bla. But to be honest, you’ll be thanking me later when you see the results.

Solutions2Success specialise in providing training for businesses that sell product, services and solutions to businesses in the UK or globally. The courses range from one day programmes to longer term programmes, both with fully qualified sales trainers.