For a company to achieve absolute success, it has to be completely synced. What this means for moving companies marketing is that you have to align your sales and marketing departments. This is the only way to make all your other efforts count. And this is something that any moving company will agree with. Having the best software solutions and applications will only get you so far without someone to close the deal. Having the perfect SEO management team and 1st-page positions for all relevant keywords is great, but it won’t get you revenue unless you book actual moves. So, to help you sync everything together, here are some essential Sales-Marketing collaboration mistakes that you should always steer clear from.
3 Sales-Marketing collaboration mistakes that most companies experience
Sales and marketing management teams are both critical to the growth of moving companies. Both teams have the same end game – to drive conversion rates for the moving company up. But the differences between the two can often lead to difficulties with working together. So, what are some of the most essential differences to remember here?
1st mistake – both teams tend to work in their own community
This is the most common and biggest mistake that you will see in the department relations within a company. In fact, according to a recent PWC survey, over 50% of companies tend to work within communities. This means that each department is most likely to operate independently and make its own decisions when it comes to operations concerning the entire company. Now, the upside of this approach is optimized productivity within departments due to a clearly defined focus and organization.
However, the downside of this (and one of the sales-marketing collaboration mistakes) is that this approach leads to a closed-off company mindset. As a direct result, departments become limited and inward-looking, which demolishes any data-sharing with other teams. So, instead of a company being a source of innovative or creative ideas, you end up with separate teams that will look to blame other teams for any mistakes that occur.
Why is it essential to avoid this principle in the long run?
Without proper teamwork and unity within a company, you aren’t able to make the most of the skill set you have at your disposal. You can look at it this way – your Sales department might not be able to close the deal if they lack feedback from your Marketing team in terms of what customers are looking for nowadays. And on the other hand – the Marketing crew might waste your company budget by targeting audiences for services that you no longer offer.
This is why communication is one of the largest Sales-Marketing mistakes that occur. Both teams can easily turn from cooperative to competitive to earn favor with you as the owner. This is why the mindset of business owners is in charge of making these matters clear. You are the game master and you decide what goes and how it goes – never forget that. Otherwise, your entire moving business might end up in the gutter.
2nd Mistake – not sharing the right kind of information with others
Okay, so you managed to overcome the “working within closed communities” issue. Congratulations – your Sales and Marketing department are working together and sharing relevant information. However, there is a good and a bad way to do this as well. It’s all about the approach. When the communication is bad, context is lost, updates are missed and decisions are miscommunicated.
The cause for Sales-Marketing collaboration mistakes in terms of communication usually occurs due to an overwhelming multitude of data sources. Both teams are dependent on feedback from various sources when making a single decision. Hence, they not only have to juggle with their own data but also gain access to the data from each other before making a final call.
Another torn in your side here can be the use of emails for internal communication. This is just a whirlpool of never-ending “reply all” responses that end up confusing you even more. Countless spreadsheets and attachments in email chains that you can no longer define.
So, what is the right approach here?
The solution to this problem lies in day-to-day communication and work transparency. Sales-marketing collaboration mistakes are less likely to occur when you have scheduled meetings and data-sharing sessions. The modern-day business, every minute counts and timely information is precious. So, waiting for next week’s large meeting just won’t work – you have to have established contact and updates between departments. Our advice – consider the practice of Slack as an internal communication channel.
3rd Mistake – misconception in terms of individual, team and company objectives
All companies operate under the same guidance – attract as much business as possible and create revenue. And within that general idea lie the specific goals of your Sales and Marketing teams. However, sometimes it can happen that those goals won’t match. Often, they might even sabotage each other.
If the objectives of these two teams differ, they might end up neglecting the needs of others to reach their own goals. And the one that will suffer most due to all this is the company itself. For example, your marketing efforts and campaigns might focus on growing website traffic and conversions by promoting local moves. However, this might not work well for your Sales team, if they are focusing their efforts on boosting your interstate moving projects. Misaligned goals and objectives can often result in confusion and error on all sides. And this will not only affect teamwork, but it will directly bring down company profit.
How can you prevent these Sales-Marketing mistakes from happening?
It all starts from the top of the company’s organizational structure. Management should always lead by example and inspire a united front among different departments. It is the job of managers to:
- offer guidance towards achieving company goals,
- motivate employees and teams to work together to avoid collaboration mistakes
- evaluate individual and team performances to discover the potential for improvement etc.
Only by doing this and being the pillar of your moving business will you be able to unify Sales and Marketing teams under one flag.
