Dear MDT: Our marketing and sales teams’ miscommunication is disrupting our customer’s journey through the funnel. How do I align them, so they work together to increase positive outcomes jointly?
You could start by locking them in a room together with clues and puzzles that require them to work together to get out. Well, it’s idea.
Hi, I’m Samantha Cornmesser from MDT Marketing.
And though I am only slightly kidding about the locked room (escape rooms are a lot of fun) aligning your sales and marketing teams is a critical step to ensure a congruent, personalized experience through any customer journey. You’ve heard the chicken and the egg story; well sales and marketing often end up with a similar story. What came first?
No matter who’s first, you need an aligned sales and marketing department which is often defined with shared goals and consistent communication. But something equally important in today’s environment is a unique understanding, by both sides, on how that synergy increases or decreases the customer’s experience throughout the journey of becoming your next success story.
MDT is no stranger to evaluating, building, and executing customer journeys and where misalignment can cause miscommunication. We even use the following steps for our own sales and marketing alignment. So here is how we helped ourselves and our current clients align the sales and marketing departments:
Align, Define, and Outline Key Processes
First, start by having both teams define and outline key processes together or maybe just a review of the existing processes for items like:
- Buyer personas: who is your target audience and how are you offering value?
- Defining lead status: what and when is a contact a lead?
- Customer Journey process: what does this look like for each solution – it often helps to use a flow chart to map out visually what this looks like. This process should help answer the question of who came first or rather who should come first.
- Automation: what can be set through automation software and what will remain a manual process. This helps divide responsibilities.
- Reporting: you can’t reach a goal you’re not measuring. Determine how your teams will measure their goals and put this in place as soon as possible.
Communication Alignment
Set-up weekly meetings to secure consistent communication between the departments. Have both teams determine what the weekly agenda will look like but make sure it includes:
- Goal status: Are you on track? What do you need to meet the goal?
- Strategic Processes: Review what’s working and what’s not.
- Support requests: This is the perfect time for the teams to talk through what supporting materials are in the queue and what those due dates look like.
- Action item assignments: Who is responsible for what and when does the team need it? This can include who will update other departments.
- Celebrate Wins: This is the most important to do as a team and no win is too small.
Align Under One System
Last, but definitely not least, establish a CRM that includes or can integrate seamlessly with Marketing Automation and Sales Software. When looking for the right system, MDT Marketing chose HubSpot. HubSpot offers a free CRM, marketing automation packages, and sales software that enables our team to view status updates, set up customer journey workflows, assign follow-up tasks, and review real-time reports. One system that does it all.
Imagine giving your team the ability to focus on key triggers that are disrupting the customer experience; the right system can give your teams a full picture of their efforts and how they work together.
Whether HubSpot is right for you, or you go with something similar, establishing an integrated system can be a hefty investment so do your homework. To get you started on marketing automation options, check out the MDT vlog by Ted Greeley on How to Choose the Best Marketing Automation Software for You. He lays out some of the leading systems we have worked with and offers key suggestions on where to start the hunt for the right software.
Getting help
So besides the original thought of locking the teams in a room together, there are plenty of steps that can be taken to align your marketing and sales departments to enhance your customer’s journey. For more information check out the article by HubSpot: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/tried-and-true-sales-marketing-alignment.
MDT Marketing has been building custom marketing automation that compliments existing sales processes while enabling marketing departments the ability to focus on other items in their long queue. And, with a growing footprint of CRM partners, MDT is uniquely trained to assist integrating CRMs, marketing and sales automation, and real-time reporting. If you have questions, we probably have answers. Let us help you; schedule your call here. (go to link: https://meetings.hubspot.com/samantha-cornmesser/mdt-general-website-meeting-link)
