In small businesses everyone must work together to achieve success. It is crucial to have sales and marketing working together. According to the American Marketing Association, “marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” When an individual finds value in something they are likely to buy it. The Merriam-Webster definition of sales is “the act of selling something.”
The Tale of Two Departments.
If you look at the definitions of marketing and sales, they obviously go hand in hand. Sales is a major part of marketing. Often in reality the two departments could not be further apart. This chasm negatively affects a company’s bottom line. Marketing departments develop initiatives. They may or may not communicate these to the sales department. Sales departments make sales, close, close, close, and drive current quarter profits. Many sales people rarely evaluate if what they are doing is in line with marketing’s strategy. Marketing responsibility is the unified message about what the company does. This in essence tells the customer what to expect when they do business with that company.
Sales People – The forgotten resource.
All too often the sales department is not involved the messaging created by the marketing department. I remember sitting in yearly sales meetings being told by someone from marketing “this is the message we need to get to our customers.” The whole time I’m thinking “that’s not what my customers care about”. Why didn’t the Marketing Department talk to those of us in field sales? Who in this company knows the customer best? The Marketing Department in their corporate office or the field sales reps who talk personally with customers day in and day out?
Coming Together.
For a company to be profitable both now and in the future the structure of marketing and sales must be cohesive. Instead of two separate halves, it is one complete interconnected whole. Sales and marketing working together can vastly improve your bottom line.
What does this whole look like? The marketing department devises long term strategies. Then marketing and sales work closely to implement the individual steps needed to turn these plans into a steady profit stream. The sales team is really the “boots on the ground” part of marketing. Sales works directly with customers and they continually gather intelligence that is communicated back to marketing. This allows marketing to have up to date information. Then marketing and sales quickly adapt strategies to keep up with changes in the market and their customer base.
Sales and marketing working together will increase your bottom line.
If executed properly sales and marketing working together is like a wheel that perpetually moves the company towards greater profits. Small businesses have the edge here. If your company does not have a marketing and sales team that work together, you are underutilizing one of your greatest resources.
Laurel Fischer is a Relationship Marketing and Strategy expert. By improving your marketing and sales communication your business will reach new heights. At STL Interactive Innovations, LLC, the “Sky’s The Limit” in what you and your organization can achieve. Want to learn more? Contact Laurel today.