ADK

VC Associate

Opinionated

Contributor

Fire Starter

Marketing vs Sales Collaboration

You know the drill - I'm sure you have heard of:

Marketing: "We send so many leads to Sales, what do they even do with those?"

Sales: "Marketing content is useless, what are they even doing?"

I also researched a bit on different threads on Bravado but couldn't really find best practices to have both departments align well. What have you observed to be working/not working if the common goal for both teams is to generate quality pipeline for the company? What would be your recommendations for valuable Sales-Marketing engagement?

✌️ Growing Pains

📨 Marketing

✍️ Sales advice

24 comments

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ThatNewAE

Big Shot

Account Executive - Mid enterprise

I'm going to say a few things that can definitely be seen as 'controversial'.

1. Sales and marketing should report in the same department. Rather than having 2 different departments, with almost colliding responsibilities, they should be under the same bucket.

2. Markets keep changing every now and then, and nobody better than sales can tell what the market currently needs. So there should be a sync or two where sales provide feedback to marketing as to what the recent losses have been and why - gauging what the market is pivoting towards is more efficient on the lost deals than the won deals.

3. Marketing should be more open on their failed campaigns (rather than being in denial that the campaign failed). Sales and marketing should then sit together and understand why the campaign failed.

4. Marketing teams should know the product and the ICP better than sales. They eventually define how the market sees the product and the type of leads that enter the funnel as well - so they should know more about the product and restrictions in the same.

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

hmmmm

1. what do you mean by report to the same department? what department would that be? I do NOT want to have a "VP of sales and Marketing" This are two totally different functions, and skill sets.
I would want my marketing team focused on understanding how the customer wants to buy our product, and then CREATING DEMAND for the product. Then sales is in the game of CAPTURING the demand for the product. This is not 2001. Buyers have ALL the control and thats fine.

2. if marketing is relying on sales to understand the market, they are failing. Marketing needs to be CONSTANTLY talking to customers, prospecting customers, and market leaders to have a solid understanding of whats happening. Sales plays a role for sure. but they should not rely on us.

3. This i agree with haha. And its mainly going to be because they just tried to collect email address and phone numbers for us to call and were not able to create any real demand. so we just call ppl that DONT want to buy.

4. i also agree with this.

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

Bravado's Resident Asshole

I with you on the same questions and agreements.

SaaSsy

Politicker

I also want to hear more about the reason for 1. I'm dealing with this now and it is the dumbest thing on planet earth (especially since they seemingly don't understand what lead gen even is). I'm not talking we get bad leads - we got ZERO leads. Then marketing wants to tell us what to do, LOL!

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I agree with you on all points, Tennis, and very well said.

Though to ThatNewAE's point on #1, how does a company ensure that Sales and Marketing are collaborating?

ADK

Opinionated

VC Associate

Thank you all for chiming in! It's a sticky issue when you hear very different direction of responses and to some extend it simply needs trial and error rather than being on this vicious circle.

I know you (thatnewae) mentioned it's controversial, I also think having Sales and Marketing report to same department is quite challenging. Not because it's impossible but often someone wearing two/multiple hats, leans on the parts they are more comfortable and neglects the others. But I really liked all other points you put together.

@Tennis, really well put together thank you

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

🙌🙏🏼

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

AGE OLD PROBLEM! as a VC maybe you could have some sway in how this goes.

if Marketing is just focused on "MQL's" then you will be fighting an uphill battle. Ppl dont buy like this anymore.

if marketing can create demand for the category you are in, then ppl will come to you first, when they are in market.

But this has to be a change from the top.

Marketing needs to change the metrics they are measured on, how the create content, and what "leads" they push to sales.

this is NOT an easy fix.

ADK

Opinionated

VC Associate

Happy to share my findings later on, I'm currently helping a start up we invested in to align their marketing and sales initiatives and think with that mind very on as it's an age old problem indeed.

Of course this question greatly depends the category, what do you think is in "marketing's realm" to create demand? (it's a B2B saas tool)

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

im confused by what you mean by whats "marketings realm" to create demand.

I think demand for the product should be coming from marketing first and foremost

ADK

Opinionated

VC Associate

on your initial post you said "if marketing can create demand for the category you are in, then ppl will come to you first, when they are in market." <-- in what ways do you think they should create valuable demand? what do you think is in "their court"?

hope it makes sense and thank you again

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

OH! haha ok yes i get you now. so im not in marketing so i cant say that i know exactly HOW to do it. but the companies that ive seen that do it well, do a few things:

1. host a podcast where they are interviewing relevant ppl in the industry about challenges they face, and the company gets to share their unique point of view.

2. post content on linked in that again, is sharing their unique perspective on why their product or service is a good idea.

3. creating live events where you can kind of do free consulting and this really creates a sense of community, and allows the company to show case their expertise.

i think Chris Walker from Refine Labs is the king of this go check him out on linked in.

ADK

Opinionated

VC Associate

really insightful, will check this content out for sure. appreciate it

BlueJays2591

Politicker

Federal Business Dev Director

It's a tale as old as time. I don't think I've been somewhere where this wasn't an issue. Establish good relationships and be open and honest about the leads they pass (good/bad). I've found it helpful to let them know if we closed lost a lead they sent over and a quick reason why. Better to come from you than SFDC

ADK

Opinionated

VC Associate

Same here, personally haven't seen a single organization where this issue is not present! Going back to pen and paper sometimes together with human connection helps a lot indeed. Thank you 🙏

BlueJays2591

Politicker

Federal Business Dev Director

Making an effort to connect in a mostly virtual world goes a long ways.

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

I don’t about the best practice but in our company we have a great bonding with our market team.

We have a sync every 2-3 weeks to understand multiple dimensions - change in sales pattern, missing part in our software, pricing intel, Lead quality etc. - and decide the next best steps to experiment!

ADK

Opinionated

VC Associate

Do you mind sharing if you have a pre-defined meeting agenda those titles? That's what I'm trying to put together with one of the companies the VC I work at invested but I fear that will be one of those meetings, meetings are too loose, people talk about the most recent events and no value added next steps are aligned...

SalesRobot

Politicker

Sage

I have observed that effective collaboration between Sales and Marketing departments is crucial for generating a quality pipeline for the company. One way to achieve this is by setting clear and measurable goals for both teams and regularly reviewing and aligning them.

In addition, regular communication and cross-functional meetings can help both teams understand each other's roles and challenges, leading to better coordination and collaboration.

Another effective practice is for the Sales team to provide feedback to the Marketing team on the quality of leads and their relevance to the target audience. This can help the Marketing team improve their lead generation efforts and provide more valuable leads to the Sales team.

Overall, my recommendation is to focus on building a strong relationship and regular communication between the Sales and Marketing teams to ensure a successful and aligned approach to generating a quality pipeline for the company.

ADK

Opinionated

VC Associate

This: "One way to achieve this is by setting clear and measurable goals for both teams and regularly reviewing and aligning them". This is very on point, thank you! It's true that marketing vs sales goals are not on the same page which is indeed one of the major root causes of disconnection.

What kind of repeating agenda you would design to build that strong relationship?

SalesRobot

Politicker

Sage

I would design a repeating agenda that includes regular meetings between the marketing and sales departments to discuss current campaigns and strategies. On these meetings, the marketing and sales departments should discuss a variety of topics, including current and upcoming campaigns, strategy alignment, sales data and trends, and any potential challenges or opportunities. They should also review progress and performance, and discuss any necessary adjustments to their strategies. These discussions will help ensure that both departments are working towards the same goals and can support each other in achieving success.

ADK

Opinionated

VC Associate

really useful, thank you again mate 🙏

SalesRobot

Politicker

Sage

you're welcome

hh456

Celebrated Contributor

sales

advocate for a CRO and have sales & marketing report to the same person.

ive made my 3 comments now, bb in a week or two.

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ADK

Marketing vs Sales Collaboration

24 comments

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