Why both marketers and sales teams need to be on the CRM
Sales and marketing have overlapping roles, but also very different skillsets. Both teams use different tools and methods to get things done. This has been a challenge for many companies who have one department that struggles to see the value of having their information available in a central repository. It can be challenging because both sides of your business need access to the right data and information at the right time to make smart decisions. When salespeople don’t have access to the right data on customers, they can struggle to answer questions about prospects and end up making poor assumptions. When marketing doesn’t have access to sales-specific data, they struggle to answer questions about potential clients or end up recommending ideas that may not work for them. Here are some reasons why both marketers and sales teams need to be on the same CRM platform:
Sales reps need access to lead information
Leads are the lifeblood of most sales organizations. They are the first point of contact between salespeople and customers. Without leads, sales reps can’t sell. But even within sales organizations, there is a lot of confusion about the way that lead information is shared. In many companies, leads are stored as a list in Salesforce. Or they’re stored as a list in Excel. Or they’re stored in a Google Doc. In all of these instances, the information that salespeople need to do their jobs is missing. This information could be critical to sales success. For example, if a salesperson needs access to the list of all their customers, they need to know the name of the account, the company name, the product name, and the quantity of the purchase order. This information is critical to doing the job, but it’s not easily accessible. And because salespeople might have access to different versions of this information, they could end up making mistakes and missing opportunities.
Marketing reps need access to buyer personas and research data
Marketers often rely on sales-generated leads for their own research and reporting. This helps explain why marketers don’t always respect the sales leads that they receive. But this short-sightedness can even hurt their own work. Marketers need to understand their clients and their needs. They need to understand the problems that their clients are facing and the products and services that they are most likely to buy. All of this happens through the creation of buyer personas. But these personas are often created without any input from sales. This can lead to buyer personas that are incomplete or inaccurate. And it can also lead to personas that are too narrow. Possible reasons that both marketers and sales teams need to be on the same CRM platform
Companies need to collaborate on the same marketing data
Companies often don’t collaborate on the same marketing data because they don’t know where to start. But the truth is that lots of different people need to collaborate on the same marketing data. This might include sales, marketing, product management, CRM and other departments. These stakeholders could be on different company silos, silos within the same company, or even silos across different departments. This means that all of these people need to be able to look at the same marketing data. Without collaboration on the same marketing data, marketing departments can’t make decisions with confidence.
Sales development needs personas for target leads
Let’s say a salesperson is making the effort to find and nurture new leads. A salesperson in sales development might create buyer personas based on their conversations with potential clients. But without sales and marketing collaborating on the same data, marketing might create personas that are too narrow or too specific. Marketers might be prioritizing features of the customer that matter most to sales. Or they might be prioritizing problems that the customer doesn’t actually have. One way to resolve this is for sales and marketing to both create buyer personas with the same customer data. Then the sales rep can share the name of the persona with the relevant marketing person.
Marketing strategy needs buyer Personas for messaging purposes
Marketing strategy is the direction that a company is taking. It’s the broad strokes of what you’re trying to achieve as a business. It might be growing your brand, increasing engagement with your content, creating customer delight, or achieving other business goals. Marketing strategy is often determined by a marketing team. But the strategy of a brand is often determined by a sales team. Marketing strategy can also be affected by customer feedback and research. For example, insights on the types of customers that your product appeals to can inform your marketing strategy. Marketing strategy needs to be grounded in research and data. But it also needs to be grounded in customer feedback.