Technology has made sales and marketing alignment more manageable than ever. By automating tasks and providing analytics, technology enables better communication and understanding between the two departments, resulting in more effective campaigns and higher profits. Here are four ways you can use technology to align sales and marketing teams.
Lead Tracking and KPIs
Tracking tools show you which assets your leads are viewing and clicking. You can track lead activity and identify which touchpoints and messaging strategies are driving conversions. You gain valuable insight into what is important to them and how they prefer to interact with your business. Lead tracking also allows you to optimize assets through A/B testing and benchmarking key performance indicators (KPIs). This information can help you determine whether your marketing campaigns are effective and whether you need to make changes to improve results.
Lead Scoring and Attribution
Take your analytics from lead tracking to the next level by implementing lead scoring and attribution processes. Lead scoring is a way to rank leads in order of priority so that sales reps can focus on the most promising leads first. The higher the score, the more likely the opportunity will result in a sale. Your sales and marketing teams should meet regularly to determine what metrics help identify motivated high-quality leads and adjust the scoring to reflect this.
Attribution is the process of assigning credit for a sale to the various marketing and sales channels that contributed to it. This helps you determine which channels are most effective at generating sales leads and closed deals. Attribution can also serve as a feedback mechanism for lead scoring; you can better prioritize leads by assigning higher scores to those that interact with the assets commonly attributing to sales.
Communication, Reporting, and Marketing Automation
Communication, reporting, and marketing automation tools all contribute to keeping everyone on the same page. Teams should work with a system that combines all lead data so the organization has a single source of truth. The system should empower users to share information seamlessly across teams while reporting tools give each team member the information they need to do their job. You can employ marketing automation to hand off leads precisely once they trigger a change in the lifecycle and can then notify the appropriate team members to take action.
For example, when marketing hands off a lead, they can use technology to share the tracking data that gives sales the information they need to best craft their engagement. The salesperson would also receive an automatic notification prompting them for their next action. Likewise, marketing can later review sales and outcome reports to improve lead-generation efforts.
Playbooks and Templates
Sales templates and playbooks are another way to ensure that sales and marketing are aligned. A template is a pre-made document or email that sales can use as a starting point for their interactions. This ensures that they send the same message as marketing and that all interactions are consistent with the company's branding. Playbooks are collections of templates and instructions for how and when to use them. They provide a step-by-step guide for sales teams, making it easy to know what to do and when.
You can add these playbooks to your CRM and assign different playbooks to leads based on their profile when combined with lead scoring and customer personas. Playbooks and templates accelerate response rates, increasing the odds of closing a deal.
Bringing It All Together With A CRM
These tools build upon each other and become a game-changer when incorporated into a CRM. A CRM allows you to bring your data and assets into one place, track engagement, implement lead scoring, and empower your team to work cohesively. It is essential for sales and marketing alignment and making the most out of your tech stack.
