Companies often find themselves embroiled in making sales and marketing work together. We rarely talk with an organization where the two are in sync. Rather, we hear most speak of them as “sales versus marketing” referring to internal rivalries.

Making them work together and being on the same page is the sign of an efficient organization. We spoke to Jen Henriksen, a sales and marketing executive, on how to get there by eliminating friction between sales and marketing.

Increase communication between sales and marketing

The first step to bringing sales and marketing together is removing communication barriers. Set weekly meetings, open a Slack channel or look for other modes of communication that’ll give them a platform to discuss ideas. But if they still aren’t meeting and brainstorming together despite that, moderate exchanges yourself.

Jen often finds herself facilitating discussions at companies. She says, “I make sure that they communicate with one another what each person needs and what’s important to them. I also make sure that marketing understands sales targets, objectives, requirements in their roles, how they are motivated, and what they are looking for in a good customer. And then I’ll do the same on the flip side.”

Question the sales and marketing strategy

If sales and marketing are out of sync, there might be something wrong with the company’s sales and marketing strategy. You might find, sales getting frustrated by the quality of leads or marketing upset that sales aren’t closing fast enough. Either way, question whether you have the right strategy as a whole rather than two individual strategies that are misaligned.

Sometimes it might not even be the wrong strategy, but the number of goals. Jen says, “What I find in almost every company and environment I’ve worked with is that teams have a lot of amazing and incredible ideas, and they try to do them all. So, a strategy often covers so much ground that in 5 years you cannot get all of those things done.”

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