One simple way to bring sales and marketing together

Lack of communication acts as a wedge between what could be a powerful team effort. Most organizations have Slack or Cliq in place for inter-team communication, but how much do these teams actually interact?

This lack of communication creates a gap, which employees tend to fill with assumptions and prejudices. Sales reps can start to think that marketers don’t do enough work, and vice versa, while marketers can think that sales reps are not taking their work seriously, and vice versa. These assumptions can affect their goals, collaboration, and morale.

Humans are social – we need each other to survive. You can’t expect your employees to be social butterflies but they can’t stay in their cocoons either. Team collaboration apps are good for instant, easy communication, but to build professional relationships that have meaning, there needs to be communication face-to-face.

Meetings are the way to go

Modern businesses have a divided take on meetings. On one hand, there are teams that can request a meeting only to go over a few points that could have otherwise been sent in an email. On the other hand, there are teams that don’t find meetings to be productive at all, and rely on team collaboration apps to communicate.

In the current trends, the culture of office meetings is being forgotten about. This needs to change! When it comes to bringing sales and marketing onto the same page, round table meetings are the way to go. When people start meeting over coffee and tea to discuss goals and strategies, that’s when real progress can be made.

How should meetings go?

Integrated, all-in-one business platforms are breaking the metaphorical walls that isolate teams, but sometimes it’s better to just take to the conference room and sit down. During these meetings, teams can share their current and future goals, strategies, pain points, and ideas, which helps them to better understand each other.

Nobody likes to be told how to do their job, yet we all would like to know how we can do better. Meetings can be a place where teams can share their experiences with leads and customers, which can reveal an outsider’s insights about how each of their work affects the other.

To make the most out of these meetings, prepare an agenda and send it out in advance, so that people know what they’re walking into. Host biweekly updates on campaigns, ad analytics, lead nurturing strategies, deadlines, or brainstorming, which require both the sales and marketing teams to be on board. When you plan out these meetings in advance, it will be easier for the teams to prepare their input.

Walk in each other’s shoes

When marketing and sales teams understand and respect the value of each other’s work, there will be a notable increase in their combined output. Have a designated representative from each team sit with the other for a day. This way, each team will know how the other team contributes towards their shared goal. There will be no room for prejudice and judgement when there’s transparency and healthy communication between the teams. Next time the two meet, there’ll be an earnest, civil discussion.

These meetings don’t have to be enforced or be made mandatory. Both the teams can pick a suitable day and time, create an agenda, and prepare a presentation at their own pace. Only then will these meetings be useful and act as a platform for natural socializing. At the end of the day, bringing people together is what matters.