BUT THE SALES AND MARKETING PARTNERSHIP FACES MANY CHALLENGES A key reason marketing and sales partnerships suffer or fail is that one party feels the other isn’t contributing enough to achieve an organization’s financial goals. In addition, more than two-thirds of salespeople have admitted that, while their relationship with their marketing team is good, it could be better. A small minority of this group is truly struggling – with a sales-and- marketing relationship that ranges from tense but workable to downright dysfunctional.
The number one tension cited by
more than half of salespeople – and about a third of marketers – is that salespeople must focus on “the now,” while marketers must be more forward looking.
SALES AND MARKETING: WORKING BETTER TOGETHER What do these data points mean for C-level executives? When building high-performing teams, the impor- tance of cross-functional collaboration can’t be overlooked. Like any great partnership, when sales and market- ing are closely aligned, there is a direct and positive effect on company performance. To cultivate healthy sales and mar- keting relationships, the teams must build on a foundation of trust. And, to build trust, they need to open the channels of communication. Building trust between sales and marketing translates to building better relationships and creating a better experience for prospects and customers. Teams need to understand that failure to meet targets is a shared responsibility. The key to success is knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses and finding the team “recipes” that work.
This is a challenge, but the right technology can make it much easier. In fact, we’ve seen that solutions based on AI, like our conversational AI Assistant,
can more tightly align sales and marketing by ensuring no lead is left unturned and by discovering sales-qualified leads earlier and faster in the buyer’s journey.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, THE KEY TO RELATIONSHIP SUCCESS? Interestingly, 87 percent of marketers and 93 percent of salespeople agree that AI assistants would improve their working relationship.
Can a virtual AI assistant make
relationships better? Marketers responded with a resounding “yes” when asked, “If you could take your best salesperson and improve their productivity by an infinite scale, would you?” Almost three-fourths (74 per- cent) said, “Hell, yes, in a heartbeat.” About a third of marketers and a quarter of salespeople are already
SELLING TIP Five Statements Customers Never Want to Hear
Customers can get hot under the collar when they hear they can’t get what they want due to “company policy” or that a problem is “the computer’s fault.” Instead of driving customers crazy with the statements below, try the suggested alternatives to show how helpful and consider- ate you can be.
• “Just a minute” and “I’ll be right back.” When you need to interrupt phone conversations with customers to find answers to their questions (or for any other reason), let them decide if they want to be put on hold. Say, “It might take me a minute to find that information. Would you like to hold or can I call you back?”
• “We can’t do that.” Customers want to know what you can do, not what you can’t. Instead of that four-letter word, say, “That’s a great question. We can...” and provide your customer with several alternatives.
• “It’s company policy.” Do you really want to tell your customers that your policies are more important than their needs? If you can say, “Normally we don’t do that; but, in your case, I’ll gladly make an exception,” you’ll make your buyer feel extra special – and extra loyal.
• “It’s the computer’s fault.” People enter data into computers, so any error you encounter is probably human. Not that it matters to custom- ers – they just want their problems solved. Turn a problem into an opportunity by saying, “I’m sorry you had this experience. Let me see how I can correct it for you.”
– EILEEN BROWNELL SELLING POWER JULY 2019 | 25 © 2019 SELLING POWER. CALL 1-800-752-7355 FOR REPRINT PERMISSION.
using an AI solution in the workplace – and 57 percent of marketers report it has made working with sales better. What’s the big takeaway? Companies must aim to optimize the relationship between sales and marketing teams and re-frame the ways they think about each other. Trust, communication, and collaboration – along with embracing new, labor-saving technologies like AI – should be the foundation of this working relationship, facilitating greater responsiveness and, ultimately, higher organizational and financial performance.
Rashmi Vittal is the chief marketing officer at Conversica and has extensive experi- ence in building marketing strategies and teams with such companies as IBM, Oracle, and Neustar.
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