The larger your sales and marketing teams become, the more difficult it is to coordinate their efforts. Sales and marketing alignment, also known as "smarketing," is critical to ensuring that these departments are working together to target the right customer base, increase conversions, and drive more sales.

Not sure where to begin? Examine these time-tested best practices for integrating your sales and marketing teams.

What is the definition of Sales and Marketing Alignment?

Sales and marketing alignment is the process of developing a shared framework of goals and strategies, supported by ongoing communication, that allows 'smarketing' teams to function as a unified whole.

Before we get into the best practices for aligning marketing, sales, and strategic goals, let's first define 'smarketing.' Three elements are essential:

Sales should be organized around buyer personas.

Buyer personas aren't just useful for marketing; they also teach sales reps about who they're selling to, what they care about, and how to assist them. As you organize your sales team, create sales enablement content, and configure your CRM email templates, keep your buyer personas in mind.

Determine who in your staff will receive and qualify leads.

Lead sharing is one method by which sales and marketing will always be linked. As a result of marketing's content offers and campaigns, leads are passed to sales to qualify, nurture, and convert.

Who accepts marketing-qualified leads on your sales team? If you can't easily answer that question, you should restructure your sales team and designate someone (or a small team) to receive and assign these leads. This is the one place where sales and marketing must be in sync.

As needed, facilitate training.

Allow sales to hold product demonstrations for marketing purposes (perhaps the same ones they give prospective customers). Alternatively, inquire if sales have encountered any difficulties with specific questions during their calls. 'Smarketing' is about education as much as it is about alignment.

Sales and Strategy Alignment

Before you can launch 'smarketing' initiatives, you must first align sales and marketing operations. Not sure how to move from silos to shared objectives? We've got you covered with the 'smarketing' alignment tips below.

Don't let setbacks bring you down.

Alignment between sales and marketing does not happen overnight. As a result, your initial campaigns may not go as planned. Despite your best efforts, you may discover that customers are not responding as expected and conversions are not occurring as anticipated.

Building your 'smarketing' team entails viewing these losses as learning experiences rather than failures. Sales and marketing can develop a shared vision of success by analyzing what worked, what didn't, and how to improve.

Examine the big (and little) picture.

Short-term and long-term goals are important for successful 'smarketing.' What is the challenge? Marketing frequently considers the short-term effects of specific campaigns, whereas sales consider the long-term benefits of loyal customers. To get the best of both worlds, effective 'smarketing' requires meeting in the middle.

Consider your customers.

What do your clients want? Both sales and marketing teams have unique perspectives on this question; while marketing may understand what piques customers' interest, sales have the experience to convert that interest into investment. 'Smarketing' teams can gain a more comprehensive understanding of the ideal customer experience by working together.

Maintain your core values.

Finally, but not least? Understand your worth. This includes not only knowing what your product or service is and what it does but also why it is important to customers and how it can address their specific pain points.

Sales + Marketing = 'Smarketing'

Aligning your sales and marketing teams helps both teams achieve their objectives and increase company revenue. When you use these sales and marketing best practices to improve your 'smarketing' strategy, your conversion rate, revenue, and customer retention will skyrocket.

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