Best Frenemies Forever: Can’t Sales and Marketing Just Get Along?

Two local leaders share advice for aligning departments that are often at odds.
Written by Eva Roethler
September 7, 2021Updated: September 7, 2021

Marketing and sales departments are notorious frenemies. Their work is deeply connected by complementary goals, but the teams are often at odds with each other. 

Marketing may blame sales for dropping the ball on hard-earned leads. Sales may blame marketing for being out of touch with customers. No matter the reasons, when the two departments are out of sync, the bottom line suffers. And when the two departments work in harmony, everyone wins. 

According to Harvard Business Review, the strains between sales and marketing generally fall into two main categories. The first is economic, usually involving a disconnect in terms of budget and revenue goals. The second is cultural, as in valuing data versus customer relationships. There are a number of remedies for both of these issues, such as integrating sales and marketing metrics, setting shared revenue targets and reward systems, and starting monthly joint meetings. 

But, as is often the case in misalignment, the first step to improvement comes down to communication. Built In LA talked to two local leaders for insight into how they use these ideas and more to maintain alignment between sales and marketing departments. 

 

Dawn Svedberg
SVP Sales • Cloudvirga

Cloudvirga is a digital mortgage platform aiming to increase transparency and reduce time to close.

 

In your experience, what are the main causes for misalignment between sales and marketing teams?

Both sales and marketing win when new customers are acquired, right? So, it seems counterintuitive that they would have conflicts or misalignment. They both need each other in order to achieve their goals. That said, both of these groups are often composed of fiercely independent professionals with very strong opinions about how to achieve those goals. They are also typically incentivized differently so the salesperson makes a commission on each sale while the marketing executive may have a goal to increase hits or clicks, regardless of whether or not those turn into sales. Both have the same intentions, but different strategies. This may cause misalignment, but the key to keeping peace and harmony is to really understand where each side is coming from.
 

How do you create a common set of metrics to measure success that is understandable to both teams?

Clearly defined activities and measurable results are the best metrics. If the metric is to deliver a specified amount of marketing material to prospects, then it is reasonable to track the deliveries and any resulting leads. Marketing teams provide online and digital support for sales including online forms, demo requests, landing pages and whitepapers. Tracking response rates, downloads and hits can provide valuable metrics. Offering interesting or educational content as an incentive for providing contact information generates leads and is a common sales and marketing tactic. The universal metric of success is to determine how many prospects are gained and how many customers are acquired. These metrics can be successful if they are communicated clearly and prospects travel through the funnel successfully to become qualified leads and ultimately customers.

Sales and marketing are interdependent, and the sooner each realizes this, the better.”

 

What’s the best way to maintain alignment between sales and marketing teams in the long term?

Common goals need to be established but tailored to the individual role. For instance, salespeople need to be incentivized to grow revenue with customers who are a good fit for the organization. They also need to be accountable in their follow up of marketing-produced leads. Marketing needs to bring the right type of leads into the organization so that there is not an exorbitant amount of time or money wasted on qualifying these leads. Marketing also needs to learn as much as possible about the products, competitors and market. Both departments need to be incentivized to achieve these complementary goals and work together to determine the best tactics. Both need to share feedback from customers, market conditions, campaign metrics and costs so that they can make informed decisions that benefit the company and customers.

Sales and marketing are interdependent, and the sooner each realizes this, the better. At Cloudvirga, sales and marketing work hand-in-hand with weekly touchpoints and complementary goals. We educate each other regarding changes in the product, market, competitors and other metrics that affect the company or customers. We share feedback continually to determine what works.

 

 

Kevin Valade
Manager of Performance Marketing • FightCamp

FightCamp is a connected at-home boxing gym. 

 

In your experience, what are the main causes for misalignment between sales and marketing teams?

The biggest way these groups can end up misaligned is from a lack of communication and collaboration. Sales and marketing should go hand-in-hand and complement one another. When goals aren’t clearly communicated between the two teams, you wind up with a situation where the teams are both trying to move the ship forward but are pulling in different directions.

 

How do you create a common set of metrics to measure success that is understandable to both teams?

In our company, sales and marketing are in the same department. This addresses multiple issues: The managers of each team are in much more frequent communication with each other so the teams can stay aligned, the teams are working toward a unified department goal by leveraging their own areas of expertise, and shared projects can emerge much more organically because brainstorms and strategy meetings have people from both sides in them.

With this way of organizing these two groups, a common metric is inherently baked into every sales and marketing team pairing, ultimately growing the company or organization. Whether it’s new customer acquisition or bringing in larger accounts, both teams want the same thing at the end of the day. Making that clear to everyone is one of the best ways to create a shared understanding.

When goals aren’t clearly communicated between the two teams, you wind up with a situation where the teams are both trying to move the ship forward but are pulling in different directions.”

 

What’s the best way to maintain alignment between sales and marketing teams in the long term?

If something is a priority, you need to schedule it on the calendar to make sure it gets done. Set up a recurring alignment meeting at least every month between the sales manager and the marketing manager. In this meeting, they can go over projections for the month and discuss planned initiatives to achieve those goals. The most important thing is to go into this meeting with a collaborative mindset. Look for ways the marketing team can help sales achieve their targets and vice versa.

 

 

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