Aligning Sales and Marketing

One of the challenges that many companies appear to be facing is what to do to bring sales and marketing programs more into sync with each other. Eventually, the two departments have to find better ways to work together since, when it comes right down to it, both are trying to achieve the same final objective- more and preferably more profitable revenue.

What's most interesting (at least to me) is that to generate leads marketing is focused on "mass" messaging usually using email and trying to keep from wearing out their lists. At the same time sales is doing more one to one outreach, usually on the phone but when they don't have enough good leads to work with, face the problem of low response rates on cold (or at the very best- lukewarm) calls. Sales only alternative is to simply do what they have always done and "turn up the volume". But there is a a limit to what one person can do.

Oh yes, and there's that wonderful issue of content creation, because astonishingly enough, when sales has to make cold calls because they don't have the leads to work with, they need to be able to offer something of interest/value to the contacts.

One possible option is for both marketing and sales to work together to create combined email and telephone programs - perhaps these can be extended to also include direct mail.

They can - at least to some extent- combine the databases they're working from (I have frequently found them to be different). Marketing can save the day with content creation and campaign management and sales can offer a new "marketing spokesperson" to help add variety to their message and reduce the wear-out on the lists.

You an use this Boxpilot Lead Nurturing outline to show the campaign structure and provide an easy and affordable service to actually deliver these combined voice and mail campaigns.