Marketing and sales are two sides of the same coin. Frequently operating in parallel with one another to many business people there are separate yet equally important components of their business. This is true in some areas however this mindset is just one marketing and sales definition you should know about.
A new form of marketing and sales operation has begun to emerge. This new form actively melds the best of both marketing and sales to create a specialist system that can function for any product, one that can make a huge difference to any business person’s career. This new definition in marketing and sales is known as smarketing.
Perhaps this is not the most aesthetically pleasing name but smarketing holds great meaning in the development of many companies, particularly medium sized entities. This new combination of marketing and sales is rapidly becoming a permanent feature of the economy too as companies look to adapt to uncertain markets and speedy technological advancements. So what is smarketing, and how is it relevant to your business?
Combining marketing and sales operations into smarketing
We all know what marketers do, their job is to produce content to draw in leads for a company’s sales funnel. Marketers sometimes act as a go-between, an intermediate step between the lead and the sales team, but their primary role is ultimately content based. The job of the sales team is then to take the lead the marketers generated and process said leads to closing.
This is the standard procedure for companies that separate their marketing and sales departments, however, companies that follow this procedure are in fact already close to achieving smrketing. Smarketing is the full and complete integration of marketing and sales departments. Individuals may still have assigned roles focusing on one area in a smarketing team but the team’s core raison d’etre is a total combination of sales and marketing.
Smarketing relies on every team member sharing aligned goals, which has often limited its uptake. Marketing and sales departments frequently compete against one another and while healthy competition is good, negative attitudes between colleagues is damaging. Therefore smarketing is usually only implemented by progressive companies willing to invest in strong workforce cohesion.
Why should you implement smarketing?
It’s a well established fact that companies with great communication perform better and are more effective than those who communicate poorly, or indeed those with a vertical power structure. Smarketing will improve your team’s communication thus boosting their efficacy, and vice versa. It also limits verticality by spreading responsibility. How does smarketing achieve all this? For the following reasons;
- Employee roles are more specific, defined, and have increased meaning.
- Customer experience is vastly improved thanks to improved internal communication.
- Accelerated revenue growth is achieved, according to the Aberdeen Group by up to 20%.
- Product improvements are achieved quicker due to increased inter-team info sharing.
- Employee motivation is increased thanks to increased healthy competition, responsibility, and a more social working environment.
Can your company afford to miss out on these significant improvements? These are tremendous developments for any business, don’t miss out on the advantages smarketing offers. So how do you go about implementing it?
How you implement smarketing at your company
Implementing smarketing will make a tremendous difference to your career and your product so it’s crucial to get this operation right. There are four key stages to implementing smarketing that apply to any business;
1) Adopt shared vocabulary – Marketing and sales terminology frequently differs so come up with a shared vocabulary your team can use to avoid miscommunication. Ensure that the terms you agree to use are concise and specific to improve your team’s efficiency. Your goal is to eliminate any possible sources of confusion.
2) Define roles and goals – A smarketing team may be mixed but the roles within it should not be. This form of marketing and sales requires definition, it only functions if everyone has clear direction. The same applies to your teams goals, both long term and KPI based, to provide team cohesion and focus.
3) Merge content creation – Under smarketing rules your content needs to take both marketing and sales into account. Your content’s function is to create an engaging narrative for your product and to create a loyal audience. Invest in high quality specialists who can write from both a marketing and sales perspective.
4) Use a high quality CRM – Smarketing implementation simply won’t work without a high quality customer relationship management (CRM) system. A good CRM makes a huge difference, your operation will flounder without a system that is highly detailed, efficient and easy to use. Invest considerable time in finding the right tool for your team.
If you implement these four steps you will be able to successfully implement smarketing. The function of your sales and marketing operation is particularly dependent on a high quality CRM and an aligned sales guide system, so what should you be looking for in this area?
Choosing the right CRM and sales guide to achieve smarketing
The development of your marketing sales and marketing operations requires the tandmen utilisation of a CRM and sales guide system. Smarketing has a broad approach but the tools you need to carry it out conversely need to be specific, narrow and niche. Your CRM needs to harness and organise your team’s talent, your sales guide in turn should be easy to use and readily accessible by every team member.
As a marketing team requires specialist internal communication you need your CRM to offer seamless data capture, covering emails, multimedia content and more. This needs to be combined with an email tool that tracks every click, every lead, and syncs this information with your smarketing team’s calendar.
The Revenue Inbox created by the eponymous IT software company offers these specialist functions and a number of other attractive features. These include an insight dashboard that provides deep and detailed analysis, as well as a dedicated support team. Revenue Inbox also enjoys a 4.8/5 rating on Appexchange. This CRM is well received and well designed for smarketing implementation.
Using a solid CRM will bring your otherwise disparate team together, a sales guide will give it direction and purpose. There are certainly many sales guide systems out there but Revenue Grid also publishes its own innovative system, the Revenue Guide. Easily integrated with the inbox system, the guide allows everyone on your smarketing team to set up actions, playbooks, and share customer data.
The Revenue Guide’s outstanding feature is a clearly defined and simple to use sales pipeline tool that is easily accessed by every team member. This allows content creators and marketers working within the smarketing team to see every aspect of your collaborative direction. As well received as the inbox system, Revenue Guide is what you need to achieve smarketing synchronisation.
Smarketing – The ultimate sales and marketing definition
Ready to start implementing one of the most exciting developments in the sales and marketing industry in the last few years? Let us know how you get on at implementing smarketing at your company. We love feedback from other professionals, were you successful? Did you encounter stumbling blocks? Keep us in the loop.
You can also refer to our other articles on sales and marketing, and discover how you can implement a number of other exciting sales developments at your company. Make sure you also like and subscribe to our social media pages so that you don’t miss out on our latest sales updates and news.
