Revolutionise your marketing
How things are
In many businesses today, sales and marketing teams still find it difficult to work together. Salespeople moan about “marketing bullshit”, while marketing specialists complain about their “arrogant and ignorant” colleagues in sales.
It’s about time everyone reached out to each other. Reshaping this relationship can unlock hidden potential, accelerate digitalisation and open up new ways of addressing customers.
How they should be
Marketing and sales departments share knowledge and experience, working efficiently in lean and consistent processes. They follow a common goal and constantly focus on the customers’ challenges.
Customers and other interested parties enjoy better quality information online. Across all contact points, they see how their needs are at the centre of what the company is offering. They recognise opportunities that they did not even know existed.
How Smarketing works:
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Respect and perspectives
The Smarketing process is all about working together towards a common goal. Clever moderation of discussions creates an atmosphere in which everyone across all hierarchies can contribute and feel respected and listened to, overcoming stubborn prejudices and old structures. Open and honest communication opens up new viewpoints and perspectives that give the team the confidence needed to strike out a new path. Smarketing is always successful when everyone understands what they are working towards.
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Customer focus and market knowledge
The internet has changed the way that customers and other interested parties behave. Whenever they have a question, their first port of call is usually a search engine. Smarketing is based on this new way of finding information and making decisions.
A customer journey developed together by sales and marketing forms the foundation for effective content. The information placed at the various contact points on this journey creates greater visibility in the target group. This means that those identified as leads have a much greater knowledge base.
As a result, your sales staff can reach out to well-informed contacts. They also benefit from the joint work on the customer journey. That is because the background research on technology and market development allows them to show customers new opportunities and unexpected benefits.
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Tools and aids
A CRM solution forms the digital heart of the Smarketing process. It is here that all the information from interactions with customers comes together.
A cloud-based solution that allows all team members to access documents is essential for making sure that everyone is up to speed.
To make sure everyone is on the same page, the collaboration is governed in a service level agreement. The SLA describes the following:
- How the buyer persona is defined
- What makes a qualified lead
- What the flow of information looks like
- How each point of the process serves a specific goal
- Who does what, when and how
This process thrives on continuous feedback: what works well and what could be improved. Defined feedback and brief updates are based on agreed KPIs that consist of communication and sales parameters specific to each project and company. These include click rates, conversions, identified leads, customer contacts, contact quality and many more.