E-Marketing
Bridging the Sales-Marketing Gap
Bridging the Sales-Marketing Gap
Every company which has marketing and sales departments has at some point witnessed the famous – sales and marketing fight and blame game – more commonly known as the sales and marketing misalignment.
One of the most significant reasons for the sales and marketing divide is the difference in objectives and their measurement of success in closing the sales deal. In a B2B set up these differences are more glaring as compared to a B2C company.
In B2C, both marketing and sales are measured by the sales and market share the company enjoys for its products. In such a scenario, marketing invariably assumes the role of assisting sales and propelling the company’s revenue share in the marketplace.
However, in most B2B companies, the primary objective of marketing is to generate quality business leads and of sales to convert these into closed deals.
Both these departments are also measured based on the number of leads generated and the number of sales closed, respectively.
In reality the role of marketing in a B2B company is relationship building and that of sales to use this relationship and help prospects make a rational buying decision based on business value offered by the company’s solutions.
Irrespective of how companies want to position their marketing and sales objectives, the truth is marketing and sales are two sides of the same coin.
Selling starts the very minute the company goes out into the world and talks about its offering. Companies spend on marketing activities because they want to attract people who can buy their offerings. So what really differentiates marketing from sales is the point of their entry in the relationship building process.
Hence it is essential for companies to create a common ground or process for marketing and sales teams to work together in the in-between stages of qualifying and nurturing Leads.
Define Lead Profile
Defining a good Lead is the first step in this direction. It starts by putting down a definite list of attributes and a score for each attribute; this process helps in scoring the Leads and qualifying them. These pre-defined Lead attributes should be arrived at after doing ample research on how the Leads in the company’s Lead funnel behaved in the past, this requires an in-depth study of both Leads closed and opportunities lost. Also, this should be an ongoing process, where the Lead behavior is watched and the common definition accordingly developed over a period of time.
Automate Processes
Use of technology like marketing automation solutions can help in easing and automating the process of scoring and qualifying leads if the primary source of Lead generation is Internet.
Just this one process can go a long way in bridging the sales-marketing divide, at least in settling the blame game.
Setting up such a process not only helps in bringing clarity to the end objectives of both, but also equates the success metric. The Lead definition becomes the base measurement value for both the departments. Marketing is measured not on the basis of Leads generated but on the basis of qualified Leads generated in accordance with the common definition. Sales get measured on how many of these qualified Leads it managed to close.
Marketing automation solutions allow sales and marketing to have a common free-flowing communication channel through a common “Lead view”, even if they fail to fit the pre-defined criteria.
Click here for more on : marketing automation system, lead management software
Article Marketing to Generate Sales
Article Marketing to Generate Sales
Article Marketing is a great way to generate subscribers and to get visitors to your website. Once you have your reader’s attention, you can easily convert them into buyers, which of course means more sales for you. More people coming to your website through your articles means that you will be building a solid base that you can then monetize to create a real and lasting source of income.
How can you write articles that generate sales?
1. Target your audience. You are not writing articles so that everyone in the world will see what you have to say. You are writing articles so that people that are interested in your product, your service, or your niche will find you.
2. Write so that you are informing your future customer. A well informed reader can become a buyer and they will be more likely to buy from you if you are the one who has been giving them the information all along. Every article that you write is raising your trust level with your readers and people want to buy from people that they trust.
3. Get your reader to take action. You are writing articles so that your reader can come to your site and take action by opting in to your list or seeing your sales page. At the end of your article, you should be ready to make a call to action which should be included in your resource box.
Article writing will help you to create a steady stream of traffic which you will be able to convert into subscribers and then into buyers. This will help you to create a lasting source of income for the future and build YOUR business.
Would you like to learn more?
Claim Your FREE Report by going to: Article Marketing