Using AI to Optimize and Automate Marketing
In sales and marketing, artificial intelligence (AI) adoption is a hot issue right now, and for good reason. Sales and marketing is the business...
"Smarketing is the process of integrating the sales and marketing processes of a business. The objective is for the sales and marketing functions to have a common integrated approach.”
Marketing and sales functions have rarely been the best of friends and even today they sometimes still don’t communicate with each other in the best way. Marketing may blame sales for not following up on leads in a timely manner, while sales may fault marketing for the quality of leads not being up to par. This cycle can keep going around and around.
However, a recent surge of the Chief Revenue Officers (CRO) role in companies, whose duty it is to look at the overall revenue cycle, shows that more and more companies are looking to mitigate these issues. The CRO helps sales and marketing teams align better by managing the entire revenue cycle from lead generation to closing the sale and beyond.
According to HubSpot, 70% of buyers have done their research before they talk to Sales, and 59% prefer not to talk to Sales at all. This is even more of a reason for sales and marketing to work hand-in-hand.
Ryan Erskin of Forbes sums up the situation perfectly explaining that, “B2B customers today progress more than 70% of the way through the decision-making process before ever engaging a sales representative. If you’re so focused on what happens in the latter 30% (pricing, discounts, and sales tactics), then you’ll miss the first 70% and wonder why your pipeline isn’t filling up any faster.”
With that in mind, let’s explore how we can address this referenced 70% stake, by providing valuable content that will attract customers.
Both sales and marketing need to have a clear goal of what they want to achieve. Sales has a clear revenue number they are working toward while often marketing does not always have a set revenue number they are accountable for. Marketing needs to establish clear goals too.
For example, how many leads need to be generated in a given time frame to reach a business or campaign goal? If you don't yet have a benchmark number to use, work backwards from your revenue goal and apply your average conversion numbers. This will allow you to establish the number of marketing qualified leads (MQLs) that marketing should aim to generate.
Keep in mind that Marketing should also be involved in sales pipeline meetings to learn more about which leads converted and why/why not. This will show confidence that to sales that marketing is also invested in the quality of these generated leads.
Sales and marketing need to have clear definitions of the following: Who is your target buyer? What makes someone a good fit as a qualified lead? What actions indicate that there is an interest/need from the customer?
The below diagram from HubSpot illustrates a Lead Qualification Matrix which sales and marketing teams can use to help bucket leads into different categories and define the next steps. The matrix qualifies leads by ‘Fit’ (your buyer persona) and 'Action' (Hand Raisers who have downloaded an asset on your site, etc.).
In most organizations hand raisers that are deemed a good fit will be called immediately. Some organizations will also call on sales-ready leads while others may leave those up to marketing for nurturing. Thus, it is up to your organization to closely define which categories should be followed up with and by whom. Every team should be aware of the definition of a qualified lead, and who is going to follow up in each of these categories.
Similar to support teams, Sales and marketing teams should have a service level agreement (SLA) they commit to. An SLA is an agreement between sales and marketing, where Marketing promises to generate a certain amount of qualified leads, and sales promises to follow up on them within a specific time frame. The agreement must be reviewed by both teams and adjusted as needed.
Smarketing meetings are meant for sales and marketing to come together to discuss any challenges they face and then collaborate on solutions. These meetings should be purely focused on determining what works and what does not.
Use this time and setting to brainstorm new ideas and ways to improve. Keep in mind, that this is not a pipeline meeting or a content strategy meeting. These meeting should happen regularly – depending on preference – but every 2 weeks is a good starting point.
The power of good content stems from both sales and marketing. Marketing is often tasked with producing content on their own, without direct input from sales. However, to optimize results, sales and marketing must work together. Inbound marketing should not be just a marketing function but a marketing/sales function.
Finally, in order to collaborate successfully there should be one source of truth for your data (either your CRM system or marketing automation platform) that both sales and marketing teams are using to have full and accurate visibility into each other’s activities.
If you need help with setting up a successful closed-loop marketing process or a content strategy, we are here to help. Please contact us.
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