Improved communication key to a successful marriage between sales and marketing

FrontRange Solutions today announced the results of a survey which reveals insights into the relationship between sales and marketing departments.

The survey, which was conducted during the TFM&A event*, revealed that the majority of sales people (66%) think their relationship with marketing “is like a happy marriage”, but the majority of marketeers (46%) are more likely to view this as “a parent / child relationship”.

Another key difference is the frequency with which marketing and sales praise each other. When asked “how often do you praise sales/marketing”, 38% of sales people said “all the time” but only 14% of marketers voted for this option.

Like with most relationships, this difference of opinion and level of praise may be down to miscommunication. The survey revealed that 18% of marketers have no idea when a salesperson follows up a lead. When it comes to sharing information, there is definitely room for improvement on both sides. Less than half (44%) of marketeers keep track of full customer lifecycle in a CRM system and 45% of sales say they log lead information in a system each time someone enters the pipeline, but don't keep it up to date. Those who had CRM systems in place were 4% more likely to describe their relationship with sales / marketing as a “happy marriage”

Sales and Marketing do agree strongly on one factor; better communication would best contribute to improved relations, with 89% of marketing, and 76% of sales voting this factor as key.

82% of marketers voted Multi-channel sales, marketing and support as one of the most exciting technology developments, while sales people preferred social networking sites like LinkedIn (with 51% of the vote).

Greg Anderson, GoldMine® Senior Director, FrontRange said “Sales and marketing teams need to ensure that they are keeping each other in the loop at all points of the lead generating process. If neither side are keeping their databases up-to-date or tracking them properly, this is bound to cause friction between the teams, not to mention wasted leads. By initiating better processes and a two-way method of communication with sales, marketing may be more inclined to see their relationship with sales as a “happy marriage”.

_{*Research was gathered from 100 responses}

by: Editor
05th Mar 2008