Sales & Marketing Alignment for Manufacturers

For those in the industrial or manufacturing sectors, aligning your company’s sales and marketing arms can be a great way to remain competitive and generate great returns. However, this can often be easier said than done, especially for companies that have been doing business in a particular way for decades.

Ultimately, both the sales and marketing department are trying to accomplish the same exact thing: generating more sales leads and revenue for your company. So why not have them work together to reach that common goal? Doing so will help ensure your staff is working efficiently and making all the right decisions.

Companies with aligned sales and marketing departments will generate more leads and higher returns than other traditionally-aligned businesses because of an aligned skill set. A combined marketing/sales team will always be able to offer better post-purchase communication with clients, a quality one-on-one experience, and targeted content.

As one of today’s leading sales and marketing consulting firms, Marketing Metrics Corp. has helped hundreds take their manufacturing firms to the next level. So, let’s take a look at exactly what aligning sales and marketing looks like!

Your Ideal Customer is Identified & Clearly Defined

One of the biggest problems for many in the manufacturing industry is determining the right customer mix in terms of profitability and growth potential. A diversified custom base helps in minimizing the financial impact during a major economic downturn. Ultimately, we need to find the individuals (influencers and decision makers) that are most likely to use their company’s goods and services. Unfortunately, any misconceptions in this area or miscommunication between departments will inevitably cost you money. Unqualified leads are often ignored by sales or difficult to pursue, which is why communicating across all channels and settling upon a clearly defined target market and buyer persona is essential.

A great marketing/sales team will have no doubts about who exactly they are trying to reach.For industrial companies, performing research into the types of buyers searching for your products and services, as well as competitors who have similar offerings is a great way to lay the groundwork in determining your ideal customer.

We’ve successfully utilized Dun & Bradstreet to analyze clients databases, clean them up and find new prospective clients to actively pursue.

Sharing High-Level Goals Between Departments

Like we’ve already mentioned above, both the marketing and sales department are trying to generate new business and qualified leads. Ideally, working together is a great way to increase high-margin sales. But when doing so, both departments need to support each other; the marketing department by producing the right qualified leads necessary for new business and the sales department for shoring up those leads and turning them into a real profit.

The marketing team will drum up the right clientele through innovative content creation and other tactics, such as search engine optimization (SEO) services, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and targeted social media campaigns. Then, once the potential customers have made it through the funnel, it’s the sales department’s turn to that lead into a customer.

Consistent Branding & Messaging

Do you think you’d get exactly the same answer if you asked every member of your sales team and marketing department to describe your brand, your clients, potential paint points with buyers, and what exactly you offer and to whom? If your answer is no, then there’s a big problem. Since all members of your marketing and sales teams will be communicating with clients either directly or through targeted campaigns, it’s essential to have consistent branding and messaging across the board.

By coordinating efforts between your marketing and sales departments, you’ll be able to make certain that advertising and promotional materials, your website, the print materials you give to clients, and all other channels offer clear and consistent messaging.

Clear Responsibilities

Having the responsibilities of every team member in your company clearly defined is important to ensure work is being done efficiently, especially when it comes to sales and marketing. Although the marketing team is generally responsible for attracting interest and the sales team for turning that interest into a dialogue, lead or purchase, there can be some gray areas and overlaps.

Outlining responsibilities and aligning your marketing and sales team will ensure that:

• There’s no confusion as to what criteria are used to qualify leads.
• Everyone knows who approaches newly-generated leads and how.
• There’s a clear understanding as to what type of KPIs will be used to measure success.
• There’s no confusion as to who is responsible for the development of sales-qualified leads.

Create a Dialogue Between Departments

Aligning your marketing and sales teams also means providing them with the right tools to help them easily communicate between departments. One of the best ways to do so is by investing in technology that enables team members to share key insight and data about leads, feedback, and opportunities for growth. Investing in a platform that enables employees to communicate such insight across channels is often the best way to do this.

In addition to the above, scheduling regular meetings and touch points for sales/marketing is also key. A good meeting agenda should look something like this:

• Reviewing & Discussing New Leads: Consider all of the leads generated in the past several weeks or months. Do they all align with your key consumer personas? How are these leads being engaged? Are there any obstacles to overcome on the sales or marketing side?

• Reviewing & Discussing Open & Closed Opportunities: Now is the time to take a look at everything that’s in front of your marketing/sales team. Take a look at how much newrevenue sales generated. Did they meet your expectations? Have you lost any sales opportunities due to paint points or competitors?

• Discussing & Adjusting Priorities: After touching on some of the points previously mentioned, it’s time to take a look at the approach of your combined sales/marketing strategy. Are there any pressing matters that need to be addressed? What does the next month hold for both teams?

• Assigning Responsibilities: This gives your teams a chance to assign clear goals, objectives, responsibilities, and outline marketing plans to put them into action. How will each department assist each other and provide support to one another over the coming months? What goals need to be accomplished before the next meeting?

Let Marketing Metrics Corp. help you align your sales & marketing tactics!

Do you need to generate more sales leads and revenue? The team from Marketing Metrics Corp. can help by providing key insight, as well as a variety of proven lead generation tactics. We can work in tandem with your sales team to drum up new qualified leads and help your manufacturing business grow.

With more than 55 combined years of marketing and sales experience in the industrial and manufacturing sectors, our team takes a unique approach that helps you increase your bottom line. Through the use of innovative technology, proven marketing strategies, and other solutions, we’ll help you stay ahead of the competition.

For more information about how Marketing Metrics Corp. can benefit your business, contact us online today or call (262) 691-9229.