Have you heard of Smarketing? It’s a term coined by Hubspot’s Dan Tyre describing the different techniques that work to align the sales and marketing functions within an organization.
Historically, the fresh produce industry has combined the sales and marketing functions, often times looking at them as being one and the same. But as our industry evolves, this is changing and we’re becoming more sophisticated, understanding the distinct roles sales and marketing play in our organizations. At DMA Solutions, our ongoing practice of inbound marketing has allowed us to consider how the “smarketing” theory can apply to produce. Here are five ways you can create a partnership between your company’s sales and marketing efforts:
Prove Marketing’s Value
When Smarketing fires on all cylinders, sales will begin to rely upon marketing to help them in the sales process. Marketers can do this by regularly supplying their sales department with data they can use as an aid in nurturing and understanding their contacts.
As a marketer, start by supplying your sales team with a weekly report identifying competitor, prospective and existing customer traffic to your company website. This valuable intelligence on visitor habits can help sales make educated and qualified recommendations to existing customers and contact the potential customers that are low hanging fruit.
Agree on Terminology
Speaking the same language can make all the difference when working to be effective in your smarketing practice. Take the time to identify the various levels of the sales cycle and identify terminology that is meaningful from both the sales and marketing function and use it going forward.
For marketers, this process helps to focus content on the needs of the most relevant audience in the sales funnel when developing marketing initiatives.
Use Analytics to Measure Success
Marketers can start to establish a closer relationship with sales by engulfing them in the marketing process. Using key metrics and data to support your marketing efforts and sharing them with sales will help you get there.
Host weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual meetings to review achievements in both marketing and sales using key metrics. Then work together to determine next steps relative to the products and/or services that your company provides.
Identify a Marketing Advocate in Sales
Before you roll out new smarketing activities to the entire sales team, start by piloting your strategy with one or two individuals in your sales organization that can serve as marketing advocates.
This trial period will give you the chance to hear from sales and iron out the kinks prior to extending the activities to your sales organization at large.
Blend Teams
Imagine how effective we could be as marketers or sales people by simply being on the same team each day to glean intelligence and better understand problems that should be solved by both functions.
That’s how progressive companies are working to improve smarketing and capitalize on cross functional communication by putting sales, marketing and post-sales team members in close proximity at work.
Bridging the gap between sales and marketing is one way that the fresh produce industry will keep our seat at the Food Marketing Table. Keep your eyes here over the next few weeks to learn about additional practices produce companies can implement to win the food marketing battle and tweet us your ideas @TheCoreBlog using #InboundMarketing.
