Squabbling or lack of coordination between sales and marketing teams can lead to longer sales cycles and increased costs—or it can scuttle deals. With so much at risk, why can't these two groups just get along? They can, says Rebekah Donaldson in a post on the Red On Marketing blog. With the help of the right B2B sales tools, she writes, Sales and Marketing can ...

• Build collaborative relationships
• Improve life on the front line
• Boost sales

What's at the root of the divide? "The sales team believes it has the toughest ... job: closing deals, with ... performance measured in hard dollars and cents," says Donaldson. Marketing, meanwhile, is stretched too thin and feels undervalued: "It can be tough to measure marketing success because there's no single yardstick and results aren't immediate."

How can you bridge the gap? A united front starts with messaging, Donaldson says. She recommends integrating your marketing message with your sales tools and practices, to ensure that sales communications are consistently on message with marketing collateral and Web content:

• Identify key points of your message and stress them at every customer encounter. Given the diversity of most IT-buying teams, that's not easy—but well worth the effort to ensure your sales team is conveying the right value proposition at every turn.
• Collaborate with Sales to develop tools for the field:
  • Checklists for discussions with prospects
  • Tips on assembling collateral for follow-up
  • A new elevator speech
  • Templates, including content for slides, text for emails and cold-call scripts

The Po!nt: Bridge the divide with a unified message and tangible tools to help Sales better communicate your core value proposition throughout the sales cycle—improving your sales process and deal profitability.

Source: Red On Marketing. Read the full post here.

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