All month, we’ve been discussing the importance of prioritizing communication between sales and marketing. The two departments can also collaborate on the development of reports for management, and they should.
Ultimately, both marketing and sales are working to convert leads to clients and sales. You work to create a streamlined experience for your stakeholders, so why not work to streamline the way you document your performance as well?
When you combine your marketing and sales reports, they should tell one story. It’s the story of guiding your targets through the marketing/sales funnel and giving each lead what they need at every point in the process, whether that’s a digital marketing message or a call from a sales rep. Both departments will benefit from a document that clearly lays out these interactions, and shows what’s working and what can be improved at each stage.
As a marketing manager, you should work with key contacts in your company’s sales department to create these combined reports. They should be structured to show the journey from the first marketing contact to sales-qualified lead status and all the way through to the sale. Use data to chart the buying cycle and show where each marketing message and interaction built a relationship with a future customer.
Such a report demonstrates the ROI realized from individual marketing and sales activities as part of a continuum. It illustrates the close ties that successful marketing and sales efforts must have, and shows how a good working relationship between the departments contributes to revenue growth.
Once you’ve created these combined reports, it’s time to use them to start conversations between the sales and marketing teams about how you can better support each others’ efforts. Instead of limiting good communication to a meeting or the creation of a report, make it a habit.
Photo Credit: Sebastiaan ter Burg via Flickr Creative Commons
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