Surprisingly, sales team and marketing teams don’t necessarily bond as much as they could.
Better communication between departments can do more than just enhance company culture and boost morale. It can affect your all-important income/profit margins which, let’s face it, has to be at least a part of the reason for a company existing!
Any company which is large enough and lucky enough to have a sales team and a marketing team should have them have a proper sit down and plan things – coordinating:

Consider these 2 lists:

A list of things the sales teams would / should know:

1. Target audience
2. Client experiences, success stories, pain points
3. Reasons why people buy? Need vs solution. Remember, people buy from people
4. Our unique value proposition – what sets us apart?
5. Potential obstacles, competitors and challenges

A list of things the marketing teams would / should know:

1. Target audience
2. Key messages (what do we do differently from others? Why do our best clients love us?)
3. Assets available to address targets and objections (blog posts, infographics, diagrams, thought literature, media content, events, social media)
4. A calendar of content that ties in with campaign ideas (which should tie in with sales targets)
5. Plans for marketing events (launches, showcases, press events)

Imagine if the sales team revealed in-depth stories from the interactions they have with their clients and prospects? Their complaints, questions, the things they misunderstood? Their worries, their fears, their personalities.  Think about the ideas that would flow from the creative marketing minds for future content, events and relationship building!
Imagine if the marketing team made the sales team aware of what assets were available? They could be sharing links to blog articles and videos created that are designed to help the sales process along – as touchpoints (“Our last conversation prompted us to write this article”), objection handlers (“You know how you were worried about X? Well we created an infographic which explains the potential you have to address this”, case studies (“We wrote up the story of another client with similar situation to you”) and interviews “Our readers would be so interested in your insight on X – can we send you a few questions for an interview for our blog?).
Like many of my clients, I have a small business where I do the sales AND the marketing, I am able to cross reference this stuff all the time. But it can be tough.
With a larger company, a little sharing between these 2 teams will only serve to inform both teams to do better, in sharing their proof of understand their customers and prospects. Larger companies have the resources to do more, and go bigger. A no brainer, I say!
It’s a travesty that these 2 don’t coordinate their efforts enough.
I asked a guy who heads the bid function at a large city based financial services/accounting firm, and he said:
“You hear the expression ‘proactive sales and marketing’ a lot; that we shouldn’t be so reactive and should instead be at the forefront of market trends and developments. This is of course true. But proactivity also extends to your internal communications and strategic planning. The cost and process efficiencies you can drive by having a harmonised sales and marketing function are considerable, but it is the impact you can have on bottom line growth and your company brand that is truly monumental. A strong pursuit and powerful pitch relies on the right targeting, the creation of a bespoke value proposition for the prospect and creative high-quality delivery.  This is a great deal easier when the marketing team and sales team are on the same page!”
Hope you’re convinced. I am running facilitation workshops to help cement these friendly Sales + Marketing collaborations – so email me and we can talk more about it!