A marketing and sales collaboration has become essential to achieving business objectives. Sometimes, the best way to forge closer co-operation is to track sales pitches on a monthly basis or keeping track of how many prospects have actually responded. In fact, it’s not unheard of to have a marketer and salesperson looking for cross-collaboration or even consult from each other.

Recent studies show how that’s how many companies are now managing to reach their goals. According to the 2018 Outlook: Globally for B2B Marketing Survey conducted by SAP, 89 percent of respondents who plan to increase marketing spending this year expect cross-selling and upselling to play a big role in their efforts to acquire new customers. At the same time, salespeople expect marketing to help them close higher number of deals per month, and when they feel confident in the success of a given campaign, 67 percent of respondents to the same survey said they are more likely to share their marketing strategies with their peers.

One of the leading ways to increase the likelihood of helping your salespeople is to support them with automated marketing. No, automation does not mean “machine,” it means data integration and integration. Knowing all the data your sales team has collected over the months, your marketing team can track specific leads or sales opportunities and serve them to the right person at the right time. By making sure all of your leads have information about who they are, and where they are in the sales cycle, you help not only improve sales performance but also ensure a more integrated marketing program.

Striking up a conversation with new leads

Sometimes, we look at companies as a collection of people, each with their own unique roles. But that’s not true. There’s more to organizations than just people. Marketing comprises customers, brand partners, employees, your marketing automation software, SEO specialists, and partners. Every group has a role to play in marketing.

Every marketing department has some unique ideas about what a campaign should look like, but when you consider your customers, they are all very interested in seeing what their brand does. Even small groups have ideas about campaigns they would like to see, or where they would like your products to be sold. Perhaps your sales team would like to look at mobile-optimized landing pages. Maybe your employees would like more of your products in their devices. Everyone has an opinion, and if you haven’t actively solicited it and collected it, then you need to step it up and ask the right questions. Not only can you gain valuable insights, but you can also make the most of your customers’ ideas.

Keeping your salespeople in the loop

Marketing automation gives you a way to monitor and test the effectiveness of your campaign. If, for example, your marketing team discovers that your lead volume is increasing, the next best action would be to increase your content production. If, on the other hand, your leads are becoming more active, then you can reduce campaign spend.

In the same way, if salespeople need more specific information for specific campaigns, they can move onto that data to build stronger and better campaigns. Sure, your sales team would want more content, but they may need even more specific information than the marketing team would desire. To get the information that your sales team wants, you may need to have them tap into data generated by their other sources. Without these analytics, you will be bound to a lower value campaign but you may end up missing out on opportunities.

Having the right analytics allows your teams to think more creatively and to explore what new, personalized campaigns might be the best way to market.

Moving forward, creating and integrating marketing automation with your various marketing channels is crucial. Understanding different marketing channels enables you to create new types of content and personalize them for different channels. Creating a marketing automation program that utilizes both of these different channels is effective and certainly helps make your company better.