“Smarketing” is a term used by marketing professionals to refer to the
intentional connection of both your marketing and sales efforts. This process alignment is crucial to ensuring that both teams are on the same page in their goal-setting as well as their metrics for success. But what does that really look like in practice? That’s what we’re here to discuss.
Partnering Sales & Marketing to Drive Business
If your business has a goal to improve your month-over-month sales by a certain percentage, then you need a way to accomplish that goal beyond just having your sales team try harder. After all, there are a great many things that affect in-store sales including seasonality, life events, daily weather, sports activity, and even the emotional state of each and every customer.
And while your sales team may be strong at overcoming all of these challenges, they may not be able to overcome several situations, including that your business is (a) new, (b) just moved locations, (c) is offering a new service, etc. That’s where the marketing team can come in and really make a difference.
Marketing & Sales Work Hand in Hand
Here’s an example: Say you’re the owner of a side-of-the-road fruit stand. You’re selling fresh oranges in the dead of winter. That is a winning strategy because it’s in high demand, the product is incredible, and nobody else is selling it. But if nobody knows that you’re selling this incredible product, you’re not likely to have many sales.
Now let’s say you have a giant sign above the stand saying “Fresh, Juicy Oranges” with a big photograph, you’ll likely see quite a few customers! And at that point, your sales team can come in to upsell, add on the juicers you’ve got in stock, and promote customer loyalty to have them coming back again next week.
To be successful, you need your marketing and sales teams to work hand in hand toward the same goals. When was the last time your marketing and sales teams met? Do they have an aligned strategy?
Aligning Marketing & Sales Efforts
Seeing how the two work together isn’t always easy, but it can be made quite plain if you have both teams in alignment. One way to do that is to have monthly meetings with both the marketing team and sales managers in the same room.
Together, you’ll come up with great ways to promote your business. While your marketing team has all of the data, your sales team has the personal knowledge of your customer base. And together they can create a winning strategy.
How to Align Marketing Efforts with Sales Goals
A great way to align the two efforts is to make sure that your big sales are working their hardest by using smart marketing techniques to get your biggest bang for your buck. For example, say you’re preparing for a huge Spring sale, it might be a great idea for the marketing team to capitalize on that by promoting it through various channels.
They could create an infographic, launch a social media campaign, or write a series of conversion emails. Sharing that with the sales team ensures that they can take the next step by following up with their loyal customers and be an informed point of contact for your customers.
Learn more about How to Align Your Social Media Metrics with Real Business Goals to see how “smarketing” can help your business grow.
{{cta(‘3f9f4530-c9e6-4818-b689-03e6778d23ed’)}}
—Ashley Clark is an Inbound Marketing Copywriter at Stream Companies, a full-service Philadelphia-area advertising agency.