Smarketing: creating structure between marketing & sales

Sales cannot do without marketing and marketing cannot do without sales. Both disciplines are part of the sales process and crucial to generate sales and profits in a sustainable way. Some companies lean more on sales and other companies such as Coolblue, Tony's Chocolonely rely more on marketing. Within B2B, companies originally lean more on sales.

For both departments to work together, you need structure and alignment to give the (potential) customer the best experience, ultimately winning them over.

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Common situation

The following is most recognizable to me in companies where there is no structure between sales and marketing: getting to work on marketing when they are less busy selling and not having time for marketing during times of sales rush.

Without sales you have no reason to exist, but it's a shame if you build something with marketing and then stop when it gets busy. This way you keep running and standing still with your business. Marketing only really pays off when you keep it up for a while.

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What is structure?

Structure between marketing and sales for me is in:

• Aligning sales objectives with marketing objectives.
• Regularly recurring a message or theme that appeals to your customer.
• Adequately follow up on marketing campaigns.
• Schedule your work week so that you have time for marketing.

By aligning goals, strategy and actions, you get structure between what sales and marketing perform and smarketing is created.

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How do you build it up?

Having worked on the marketing side myself for years, I always found it odd that sales couldn't free up time to write some content or follow up on leads. There are 40 hours in the week and surely some of that time can be created for marketing activities. Now that I work on the sales side I notice that you are lived and marketing slips in if you don't plan it.

Nevertheless, it is possible to build in structure, this by working very purposefully and aligning activities. This means that just like a client appointment, you need to block your time in your calendar. While doing so, do turn off your email and other channels so you can't be disturbed. Surely you do this with a client😉

In addition to the calendar where you plan your activities, you can add goals in the CRM. How many new leads do you need monthly to meet your sales goal? How many appointments do you need to schedule? There are a number of other KPIs. By recording these in advance and including them in meetings, you force yourself to actively work on them.

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How can we help you do that?

Besides the tips and tricks I apply in my own work, we can help you as a marketing agency. We can set up campaigns tailored to your goals and strategy so that you regularly come to the attention of your target group. Every month we discuss the results and adjust the activities for the next month. Besides this you will be proactively coached by me or another TMC employee and I will give you a proverbial kick in the pants every now and then when I need input from you in order to move forward.

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What does smarketing provide?

No running and standing still with your business in terms of marketing! It would be brilliant if you immediately bring in 20 leads in the first few months and score 10 orders out of them. Unfortunately, marketing (and this approach) takes some time. But in the medium term (3 to 6 months), you will start getting regular leads that you can convert into clients, you will be much more visible to your target audience and your clients will ask you if you can help them with a particular problem. Sounds good right?  

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