Three Ways to Improve Sales Enablement Through Collaboration

By Peggy Tierney Galvin, Chief Strategy Officer

As the pandemic continues to dramatically shift the business landscape, sales and marketing are becoming more unified. With limited ability to meet client prospects in person, sales departments’ wings have been clipped and their portfolio of tactics to nurture relationships has been sharply reduced. As a result, inside sales has taken on outsized importance as one of the least-affected parts of the sales organization. And it’s growing even closer ties with the marketing organization, which is doubling down on digital events like webinars. 

The greater integration of the marketing and sales functions is a good thing and should persist beyond the end of the pandemic’s effects on sales operations. In fact, having greater collaboration, transparency and insight between the two organizations gives the entire company better chances to successfully close leads and win business. 

Closing the Loop 

Companies that realize and act upon this coalescence will be better positioned to achieve their objectives. Given a familiarity with software tools and digitized business architecture, B2B tech companies can evolve rapidly and pivot to a more blended marketing and sales organization. This involves closing the loop between what the marketing team is producing and what the sales team is using in outreach to customers, and then incorporating customer feedback to improve marketing assets and messaging. 

Three Elements to Collaborate On 

To begin the collaborative marketing-sales process, focus on these three elements: 

1. KPIs – Both teams must be rowing in the same direction and towards the same finish line. Establishing the same quantifiable objectives will ensure each department is incentivized to focus on the outcomes and how they jointly plan to achieve them. Constant interaction, collaboration and tracking of results with respect to these measurable metrics will be another leg of the stool.
2. Feedback – Sales teams can provide marketing with real-time and granular feedback on prospect business pains, comments on assets or products, questions about features and other information. In turn, this will help marketing fine-tune its messaging and create sales enablement assets that are more relevant and meaningful to where prospects are in their everyday lives.
3. Processes – Marketing can also “close the loop” on sales interactions with prospects throughout the entire lifecycle through marketing analytics tools. By seeing precisely how different marketing assets – webinars, case studies, white papers, etc. – were used at different inflection points of the sales funnel, they can make more informed decisions about what is most impactful. It can also help teams identify disconnects in the sales process where more resources – including content, information or tools – are required to adequately engage customers and boost conversions. 

Forward together 

Sales and marketing represent a united front when it comes to sales enablement strategy, and new realities have only brought these two departments closer. Maintain open lines of communication and collaboration on goals, feedback and processes to ensure your company can convert more leads and achieve business growth. This kind of adaptability can help drive your company forward not only in times of crisis but in any market. 

We have a long history of success with empowering sales and marketing teams to meet their goals. Contact us to learn more.