“Smarketing” is the new collaborative approach that is getting adopted by corporates to achieve goals in a combination of “sales” & “marketing”. It’s a corporate strategy wherein the sales & marketing teams work together to develop a cohesive action plan.
The purpose of a marketing approach is for the two groups to form a strong bond based on shared goals and a cohesive approach to achieving them.
Importance of marketing?
Simply put, you should be concerned about marketing as it will aid your company’s success. According to a 2010 study, organizations with tightly integrated sales & marketing activities saw an annual revenue increase of 20% on average. According to Marketing Profs, organizations who used a marketing strategy had a 36 percent higher customer retention as well as a 38 percent greater sales win:
Marketing can also help your customers have a better experience. Consumers receive the correct communications & information at the right time if marketing and sales departments collaborate closely.
You could have severe problems if your sales & marketing teams aren’t in sync or don’t see each other as colleagues. Your marketers won’t be able to focus their work correctly and bring in the kind of potential leads required unless they have a thorough understanding of sales goals and how the team achieves them.
Your salespeople will be ill-equipped to convert the leads into clients if they don’t understand & contribute to the marketing strategy.
This is not conducive to consumer happiness, employee morale, or profitability. As a result, implementing Smarketing can allow both groups to employ their expertise to propel your company forward.
What Does Smarketing Aim to Achieve?
The goal of s.marketing is the same as traditional marketing: to increase sales by raising awareness & generating leads. However, unlike more conventional tactics, the goal here is usually not to persuade potential consumers to buy but to get them on the phone so that sales may convince them.
For example, a banner ad’s purpose may be to encourage visitors to visit your site, whereas a marketing strategy’s goal is to generate leads that would ideally turn into sales.
3 Reasons to Create a Marketing Plan in a Smarketing Framework
1. Boost the sales & marketing departments’ return on investment.
Closed-loop reporting provides sales with information about their leads’ online behavior, allowing them to turn a cold call into a warm call.
Salespeople will enhance their hit rate in every phase of the B2B sales process as they become more critical at every touchpoint, resulting in higher sales figures.
Marketing will better understand where the best leads come from and which leads are most likely to convert into paying clients. Marketing can better spend their resources and time to maximize their return on investment.
2. Achieve business objectives more quickly
When your two revenue-generating departments work together to achieve the same goals, you’ll be able to boost earnings and meet other business objectives more quickly—and your company will thrive.
3. Improve the company’s environment & team cohesion
The office environment will improve after-sales, and marketing has buried the hatchet. Employee happiness enhances the company’s efficiency and attracts the most incredible talent available. In terms of income & harmony, your company will do better.
The advantages of incorporating Smarketing into your organization include the following:
- More high-quality leads will be delivered through marketing.
- Salespeople will be better prepared and motivated to convert these leads into paying customers.
- Both the sales & marketing departments will see an increase in ROI.
- Increased income and staff satisfaction across the board
How can you get your sales and marketing teams to work together in a Smarketing framework
It may appear challenging to bring the two teams together, but the effort will be worthwhile once they are in sync. The following are the first steps in conducting that alignment:
- Sales and marketing should get the same or similar goals;
- communication between teams should be honest about the processes and goals of tasks;
- alignment of buyer personas (for more information on buyer personas, go here).
The two teams are opposed: sales is obsessed with figures, while marketing isn’t.
Implement the SLA –
SLA or Service Level Agreement refers to agreements reached between sales and marketing.
For example, a marketing agreement could generate 5,000 leads over two months, whereas a sales team SLA could contact each new SQL within one hour.
Leave an open channel of communication between the teams in Smarketing
Marketing and sales should be on the same page regarding objectives and goals. Another critical aspect of Smarketing’s efficient operation is communication among team members.
Emails, messages, and phone conversations are not the same as communication. They are necessary for the teams’ routine to run smoothly, yet they are insufficient. Teams must hold major meetings with all members regularly.
A corporate should also start looking for an ERP solution that allows seamless communication between the teams. A communication gap will lead to inefficiency and performance deficit. When looking for an overall ERP/CRM solution make sure you adopt a solution that offers a complete ecosystem.
Meeting once a week:
Primary alignments here between two teams on topics such as work progress, alignments on profiles (updates or corrections), as well as other difficulties that obstruct Smarketing’s proper operation.
Meeting once a month:
In these meetings, more in-depth issues are tackled. Topics that, despite weekly meetings, could not be resolved.
Teams should sync with marketing campaigns and projects, and salespeople should keep their colleagues informed of any process modifications or new information.
Conclusion
Marketing automation technologies can assist Marketing and Sales in automating this handover. The system may recognize when a lead is ready for Sales based on criteria established by both teams and send an automated internal email or SMS to the appropriate person. Sales can now use a CRM system to keep track of each contact. A CRM will help both teams to sync well and collaborate together to achieve the goal.
Getting a company’s sales and marketing divisions to collaborate is critical to its success. According to Aberdeen Group research; organizations that invest in Smarketing generate 20% more revenue each year than those that do not.
Smart goal settings are important, learn how to define them and some examples