How to unify sales and marketing by building a Growth Strategy

One of the largest bottlenecks for growth is a marketing and sales team that do not work together. Marketing is doing one thing and sales the other. Nobody doubts that they work hard, maybe even too hard, but all their efforts do not yield the expected results.

It might sound familiar to you: marketing is doing everything they can to obtain leads. These leads are sent to sales, who then are for many reasons unable to convert them. Sometimes they get many leads, other times the number of leads is small. More often than not, the leads are just not interested in converting. It is like both teams are working as separate pillars without a unifying strategy to align them.

What you need is a capstone to unite your pillars and to get them to work together. Your growth strategy is that capstone that will bring together your sales and marketing processes and instigate growth. They are both experts in what they do, so it is key to harvest that knowledge and not let it go to waste.

At SUM digital, we believe that a growth strategy is key for getting your sales and marketing teams on the same page. And unfortunately, this misalignment between the teams is something we come across often. Here, we will explain how a growth strategy will unify your sales and marketing teams to clear the path for growth.

How a growth strategy unites

When we start working with a new client, we always start with making a growth strategy. We speak to them in detail, we collect data and analyze it, we define goals, and set up OKRs. The result is a custom-made growth strategy that we will work on together.

Why is this growth strategy the necessary tool to unite marketing and sales? Here you find the most important reasons.

1. All the noses into the same direction

In The Netherlands, we have an expression: alle neuzen dezelfde kant op. The literal translation is something like: all noses into the same direction, but it means that everyone is aligned and on the same page. This is what a growth strategy does; it points all noses into the same direction.

You can look at your growth strategy as a manifesto that has to be known inside out by everyone in your company. From the higher to the lower levels, every employee needs to know what is expected from them, which goals you are trying to achieve, and what measures are in place to achieve them.

Right now, the noses of your sales and marketing teams are pointing in different directions. By letting them understand your growth strategies, they will start working towards the same common goals. This is how you start unifying your teams from a higher level.

2. No goals without assists

When looking at this in more detail and on the level of your teams, your growth strategy will provide your sales and marketing employees with the same goals. You want to attract leads that are interested in what you sell, that are either ready to convert or to find out more about what you do. Those leads that are ready, will go to your sales team. The marketing team assists the goal and the sales team hits it home.

The growth strategy reduces the number of defenders and eliminates the goal man. 

• How is this done? By adding the correct content to the growth strategy: A concise summary of the characteristics of the target audience.

• A detailed description of the customer journey from first contact (or even no contact) to loyal customer.

• Marketing methods to lead the customer down the path to conversion, like adverts, downloadable content, webinars, newsletters, SEO, and social media marketing.

• Metrics with KPIs to measure where the leads are in the customer journey and which methods they are ready for.

• A strategy for after conversion, to turn the new customer into an ambassador for your brand.

With nothing blocking their way to victory, the work for your marketing and sales people is much easier and more manageable. Both teams know exactly what to do, why, and how they can assist each other to make it happen.

3. A well-oiled machine

In the end, you want to get to a situation where the marketing team is the dating agency, and your sales team is the wedding planner. The growth strategy first makes sure that all noses are pointed into the same direction. Then it gets your marketing and sales teams to work together towards the same goals. Once this is set up, what you should be left with is a situation where both teams are more efficient, they have more time to focus on their tasks, these tasks are much clearer defined, and as a result they are happier too.

Naturally, we continuously use metrics to keep measuring our growth strategy’s OKRs and to adjust where necessary. Sometimes we take a step back, sometimes we take two forward, and other times we take a side road. We do this until everything is set up perfectly and your teams work together like a well-oiled machine. This is when long-term growth will flourish.

Let SUM Digital build the bridge

The good news is that there is a solution. It is not uncommon that we see sales and marketing teams working as pillars when we first meet with a client. The skills are there, and our custom-made growth strategy will point all the noses towards growth. 
Let us unite your departments and build a bridge between your sales and marketing teams. Schedule a free Discovery Call. We will tell you exactly how we will make a customized growth strategy for your company and unite your sales and marketing teams for lasting growth.

Alternatively, download our growth playbook and read all about our proven growth methods yourself.