How to realign your Sales and Marketing Teams during the last stretch of 2020 in 3 simple steps.
It seems like many companies forget how important it is to realign teams with their strategies and goals on an ongoing basis. Now more than ever, the realignment of Sales and Marketing Teams are essential as we approach the peak season at the end of a year known for its unpredictability and economic turmoil. Senior Management should give this process adequate time and the attention it deserves.
They should handle team realignment with a clear vision and purpose in mind. During this year a lot has changed including customer buying habits, the brand’s community involvement, customers’ needs as well as the customers’ expectation of the brand etc. Companies who do not do regular realignments of teams will surely see it in their declining revenue. Start your realignment process with these 3 simple steps in mind:
Step 1: Communicate Regularly
Effectively communicating with one another in the workplace is always a good starting point. Listen and communicate among teams. Understand where both the marketing and sales teams are, currently, in terms of achieving targets and goals. Determine the problems that each marketing and sales team member is faced with. Have one-on-one sessions to get feedback from your personnel on their experiences and concerns, as well as the responses from various customer experiences. This will not only help with the insights you need to realign your team, but will also make every team member feel valued and heard.
Afterwards, both marketing and sales teams should meet and discuss how they can work together to align both the marketing and sales strategies to meet customer needs but by still achieving the company goals. But this communication process should not be done as a once off thing. There should be regular meetings held, especially between these two departments. The one hand needs to know what the other hand is doing in order to work as a unit.
Step 2: Get Facilitated Training
Review your teams’ previous strategies and pinpoint areas where specific training is needed. Facilitated training will give them the techniques, strategies and tools they need to fulfill their job duties. By having facilitated strategy training sessions, you ensure that there is always someone who keeps the team discussions on track. The facilitator guides each team and does the realignment for you. Consider doing “cross training” where various teams join in on training sessions. This will help all team members get an understanding of the challenges diverse people are faced with. It helps having an objective person or outsider, if you will, to not only teach them, but also observe and give you valuable feedback after the sessions.
Step 3: Support and Share
Remember, at the end of the day, all teams work toward the same company goals. Once all the teams know the goal, and everyone has a clear vision and understanding of the strategies to follow to reach this goal, the company becomes one body, one unit. It’s vital for teams across all departments to form a bond and trust one another. This can be achieved by team building sessions and cross-training. Afterwards, teams should impart their know-how, support one another, and share resources. Ultimately, the company needs to be successful and grow. If this happens, there will be countless growth opportunities for the team members. Supporting one another and sharing resources will help accomplish this.