1. Marketing and sales use a common revenue
language.
2. Marketing and sales have mirrored
organizational structures.
3. Marketing and sales are proactive in their
relationship.
4. Marketing and sales work together as one
revenue team towards achieving shared
revenue-oriented goals.
5. Marketing and sales have goals and
compensation tied to shared revenue metrics.
The Marketing and Sales Synergy Model
Now that we know what a synergistic relationship
looks like, let’s use a model to understand how to
achieve it and to further define the behaviors
required of a Revenue Marketer.
Education
The first step in creating any relationship with sales
is to educate the marketing team on all things related
to sales. Trying to create a relationship with sales
without understanding their world simply does not
work and that understanding does not occur
through osmosis. More specifically, marketing
needs to understand the sales goals, be a part of
sales initiatives, understand the sales process, know
the sales team and be educated on the pipeline.
Synergistic Marketing Behaviors:
·
·
·
·
·
Participate in weekly sales pipeline calls
Participate in monthly and quarterly sales
calls
Listen to sales calls
Go on calls with sales
Participate in sales training
Revenue Language
A few years ago I met a VP at an event where we
were both speaking. As I listened to his talk, I was
trying to figure out if this guy is the VP of Sales or
the VP of Marketing. He sounded like a VP of Sales
as he mentioned things like pipeline and forecast.
He talked about joint sales meetings and
understanding the current level of quota
achievement across the sales team. He talked about
accelerating time to close and improving average
deal size. I was honestly confused as I was pretty
sure they had not invited a VP of Sales to be a part
of this particular event.
As it turned out, he was a VP of Revenue Marketing
(that was his real title) and that’s when it became
clear to me, like sales, Revenue Marketers must
begin embracing the language of revenue in order
to build credibility and drive revenue success.
Revenue Marketers don’t talk to sales about pretty
fonts or newsletters; they talk to sales about
opportunity pipeline, quota and revenue. They ask sales
questions like, What number do you need to hit for your
new acquisition target? What does your current
opportunity pipeline look like and how can we help? What
is your average deal size and how can we help grow that?
Why are opportunities not closing and how can we help?
Synergistic Marketing Behaviors:
·
·
·
Listen to the words used by marketing during an interaction with a salesperson – are
they sales focused or marketing focused?
Listen to the words used by marketing as
they participate in a sales meeting – are they
sales focused or marketing focused?
Listen to the presentations marketing makes
to sales – are they sales focused or marketing
focused?
Continued on Page 19
9 Strictly Marketing Magazine September/October 2014
Strictly Marketing Magazine
March/April 2016
11