July 30, 2015
Bridge the Gap Between Your Sales and Marketing Teams Using CRM
BY John Paul Narowski IN CRM Software, Sales and Marketing 0 Comment
Sales and marketing are considered to be two sides of the coin, because one cannot exist without the other one. These two teams are the most important departments that generate profit for any company. To put it simple, the main responsibility of marketers is generating high quality leads with the help of effective communication, meanwhile sales team is responsible for converting leads into customers. Just because these 2 teams are crucial for any company and are connected to each other, sometimes they trespass each other’s area. In an ideal situation, the synergy of these 2 teams has a positive influence on that organization, however how do you reach this goal of synergy today?
In reality, the gap between these two teams is sometimes too big. The reason is that marketing team often judges sales team for not doing enough to convert prospects from the campaign they have launched. Sales team, in turn, accuses marketing team for not creating the right marketing campaign, that would catch people’s attention and would generate quality leads. However, these 2 team should work together, because there are many activities that cannot be done separately, for example product positioning, marketing campaigns and as well as market research.
Just because the connection of marketing and sales team is so important, companies should facilitate their effective collaboration. One of the best ways to do it, is use CRM system, as some features of marketing management in a CRM software can help do this work at the tactical level while also meeting the strategic goals.
Marketing Campaign Management
The success of any marketing campaign may be evaluated based on its overall effect on the company’s revenue. CRM systems can help marketing teams in this venture, as with the help of this system they can establish a relationship between a campaign and the opportunities created from that campaign. This can be a great guide to understand whether everything is going in right direction, or there should be some updates.
Opportunity Management
In a similar way, sales team can also evaluate their activities with the help of opportunity management features that are available in most of the CRM systems. This can help understand what opportunities are more likely to become customers, which, in turn, will help them optimize their resources in a better way.
Sales Process Management
During the sales process, there are many points that influence the buying experience of customers. With the help of CRM system, sales teams will have the chance to examine buying preferences of customers, like how they prefer to pay, how they want products to be shipped and so on. After each sales cycle, new preferences and needs of customers can be updated in the system, which will result in better customer service. Whats the goal of better customer service? Of course, increased loyalty.
Brand Management
Some PR activities, like distributing brochures, data sheets or some web content are usually implemented by marketing teams. However, it’s important that sales teams involve in collateral design processes. This can be done by including some sales representatives in order to increase their contribution in the process. In this case, sales team’s members will give some advice and increase chances of attracting new customers.
Activity Management
Any interactions with customers outside the sales process are usually managed by CRM systems. In this case, sales team members are the ones who respond to any complaints, suggestions or queries about the product. Though these are activities that should be done by sales team, the marketing team can also benefit from this chance by analyzing the market response to their products, services and create much more effective campaigns.
The right CRM system with effective marketing management features can be a great way to exchange useful information between sales and marketing teams, improve collaboration and, as a result, bridge the gap.
