Sales & Marketing The Perfect Partners for Growth eGuide

Sales & marketing: the perfect partners for growth How to achieve a SMART way to work together

Sales and marketing - the perfect partners

Success starts with clear commercial objectives Determining your commercial objectives involves two crucial steps: market research and business introspection. These are the bedrock of your business and inform your commercial decisions. Your team needs clear goals to build and grow your business.

Step 1: Market Analysis Examine your market to determine your ideal position and image.

Evaluate your competition by looking at their product prices, service agreements, assortment size, and specialisation levels. Organise the data in a benchmarking map to identify your direct competition and market gaps.

Step 2: Business Introspection Consider what type of company you want to be and how you want to achieve your goals. For example, decide if you wish to be a discounter or a specialist in a product category. The answers will help you determine your place in the market and inform your strategies.

Why is it important to align marketing and sales?

Commercial objectives are the driving force behind the decisions and strategies of a successful business. They provide a clear direction for your company, help to prioritise resources, and guide the development of action plans to achieve success. Your commercial Coordinating marketing and sales activities also improves the effective use of your resources. As a result, you can focus efforts on the most valuable opportunities driving up revenue and driving down costs and benefiting the company’s bottom line.

objectives are a foundation for each department and staff member’s specific, measurable, and attainable goals. A well-defined set of commercial objectives is essential for your success as it helps to focus efforts, allocate resources, and measure progress towards achieving desired outcomes.

Ultimately, creating a culture where marketing and sales work together helps to achieve your business

Synchronising your marketing and sales activities is essential to achieve your pipeline requirements and commercial goals.

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goals by ensuring that everyone’s efforts contribute towards the company’s overall strategy. By working together, marketing and sales can drive better results and help the company achieve its goals more effectively and efficiently.

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Sales and marketing - the perfect partners

Setting Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART) goals Many businesses use the SMART framework to increase the chances of successfully achieving their goals and improving organisational performance. This is because SMART goals provide a structured approach to goal setting, which helps to ensure that goals are well-defined, realistic, and attainable. SMARTIE goals are the modified version of the traditional SMART goals we recommend for your commercial objectives.

SMARTIE stands for:

Specific Measurable Accepted Realistic Real-Time Individual Equitable

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SMARTIE goals help you define your business objectives and to ensure that the goals are well understood, monitored, and accepted by your employees.

Why are SMARTIE Goals Important?

Having specific goals that serve a clear purpose makes it easier for the team to understand and work towards them. A specific goal answers questions like:

» What exactly needs to be accomplished? » Who is responsible for crossing the finish line? » What steps do they need to take to get there?

Measurable goals allow for monitoring and tracking progress, while goals accepted by employees have a more motivating effect. Realistic goals are also crucial for employee motivation, and goals tracked in real time provide a clear picture of progress.

Individualising goals helps to increase acceptance and a sense of fairness, while scalable goals should be regularly reviewed to ensure they remain relevant and motivating over time.

By incorporating the SMARTIE framework into goal setting, your business can improve its chances of success and ensure that your goals are well-defined and attainable.

Business goals underpin marketing execution and sales by providing a clear direction and focus for these teams. Having clear commercial objectives helps managers prioritise resources, guide the development of strategies and tactics, and measure the success of initiatives.

By aligning marketing and sales efforts with commercial objectives, you can ensure that you are using your resources effectively to drive business growth and achieve commercial success.

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Sales and marketing - the perfect partners

Sales and marketing alignment The power and value of trust

Overcoming the sales and marketing gap Bringing your sales and marketing teams into alignment and unlocking business growth requires policy-led leadership and practical action across strategy, process, content and culture.

Strategy Measuring is the key to aligning strategy.

Agreeing to unify how strategies are measured across sales and marketing will help departments better understand each other.

Process Sales and marketing teams often use different Customers buy from businesses they trust, and consistent messaging is critical to establishing trust. So your sales and marketing messages need to match for confidence to grow.

A customer might make a one-time purchase based on any single factor like price, but repeat business comes from a trusted relationship built over all the customer touch points.

The need for trust is true across B2B and B2C markets. B2B has become an unhelpful misnomer in many ways. We never sell to a business; we always sell to the people within a business.

Every sale is to an individual, so every communication they receive from your sales and marketing teams must feel aligned

systems can increase understanding across the teams and enable them to collaborate more effectively.

Content and messaging If sales and marketing don’t see each other’s content, this can result in mixed messaging to customers. Reaching across the sales and marketing silos to create and review content together will streamline your output and create a more unified singular experience for

with your consistent messaging and brand values.

the customer.

LinkedIn research in 2020 revealed that 87% of sales and

Culture

marketing leaders say collaboration between sales and marketing enables critical business growth (LinkedIn). Still, at the same time, 9 out of 10 sales and marketing professionals say they are misaligned in strategy, process, content and culture despite a perception that they are working together. There’s a gap between perception and reality that business leaders need to bridge.

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processes and systems. Using the same

Building a shared culture underpins a healthy business, but it needs leadership to grow.

A solid internal comms plan breaks down silos and builds relationships. You can encourage your departments to establish cross-departmental teams, attend each other’s meetings, and share successes.

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Sales and marketing - the perfect partners

Defining your target audience By defining a target audience, your company can tailor its marketing and sales efforts towards the customers who are most likely to benefit from your products and services, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of your actions. Researching your customers, identifying their pain points and finding out what they want should form the basis of

The importance of a strong marketing plan

your differentiated marketing plan. This can be achieved through customer personas, account-based marketing or segmentation.

Successful companies recognise that their target market is dynamic and can change over time as their offerings and customer needs evolve. By regularly re-evaluating and refining your target market, your business can ensure that it remains relevant and well-positioned in the marketplace.

Messaging Your messaging answers the question, “What problem does our product or service solve for our customers?” and explains why a customer should choose your company’s offering over your competitors.

It is essential to differentiate your company by clearly defining its unique competitive advantage. With a solid, well-defined message, marketing efforts won’t

Even with a strong sales team, a company needs a

Start by taking a step back to consider the big picture

robust marketing plan to support its sales efforts and

become indistinct and lost in the crowded

and determine your overarching business goals.

drive business success. A marketing plan helps to:

marketplace, avoiding wasted resources

From there, pinpoint specific marketing goals that

and opportunities.

» Create awareness » Build the brand » Differentiate from competitors » Gain customer insights » Ensure consistency in messaging and tactics To achieve these benefits, your marketing plan needs three crucial elements: a clear target audience, defined messaging and distinctive brand positioning.

Successful marketing begins with identifying your business goals and working backwards to develop a comprehensive marketing strategy.

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align with your overall objectives.

Once you clearly understand your goals, define your target audience to ensure that your marketing efforts are aimed at the right people. Next, create a budget for your marketing efforts and allocate

Brand positioning How do you want customers to think of your brand? Brand positioning is the unique place a brand occupies in the minds of its

resources appropriately.

target market.

Research the market to understand the current

Creating your distinct brand position involves

landscape, identify trends and analyse your competitors to understand their strengths and weaknesses.

Finally, develop a marketing strategy incorporating your goals, target audience, budget, and market research.

defining your brand’s key benefits and attributes, and communicating them in a way that will set it apart from its competitors and resonate with your target audience.

Market research and competitor analysis are

To ensure success, test your ideas and evaluate the

crucial to developing your unique position as

results to continually refine your approach and optimise

you create a memorable image for your brand

your marketing efforts.

in the mind of your target audience.

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Sales and marketing - the perfect partners

The marketing mix Effective marketing tactics for sales success

There are two main types of paid search advertising — pay per click (PPC) and cost per mile (CPM). With PPC, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. With CPM, you pay per 1000 impressions.

Google Adwords is the most widely used paid search

Programmatic advertising An automated form of digital advertising that uses software to purchase and place ads in real time.

It’s efficient and cost-effective and enables precise targeting and measurement capabilities.

managing and improving a company’s online reputation, as reading online reviews can influence customer buying decisions. Reputation marketing can include online reviews, customer feedback, and brand management. A reputation marketing strategy offers businesses the ability to enhance their brand image

audiences. Examples include display ads on blogs,

Email marketing can include promotional messages,

and build customer trust. Additionally, many review

newsletters, and transactional messages that target

sites offer native advertising that allows you to place

customers’ needs and interests. It’s ideal for e-commerce

ads on competitor profiles.

and forms a critical element of account-based marketing.

Search engine optimisation (SEO)

websites or forums, social media advertising, and video.

Mobile marketing Mobile marketing allows businesses to reach customers

looking for their services. SEO improves search engine

Content marketing

on the go and deliver personalised, timely messages.

visibility and drives organic traffic to their website. SEO

Mobile marketing includes mobile apps, SMS, mobile

can include on-page optimisation, off-page optimisation,

web advertisements, mobile-first website optimisation,

and keyword research.

A strategic approach to creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined target audience.

Content marketing can include blog posts, videos, infographics, and other forms of content designed to educate, engage, and build brand awareness. These assets can be leveraged through organic and paid search as part of your sales pipeline.

Email marketing A direct marketing channel that uses email to communicate with segmented customers and prospects. Email offers businesses a highly targeted and measurable way to build relationships and drive sales.

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landing pages and emails. Mobile view is increasingly important, with the Hubspot State of Inbound Marketing report 2022 revealing that mobile website views outpace desktop by 41% to 38%, with the gap only likely to grow.

Paid search Paid search allows you to reach customers when they are searching for products or services related to your business. This type of digital advertising enables businesses to display ads in search engine results for specific keywords. It’s highly targeted and measurable advertising with the potential for high ROI.

Your use will depend on your market research, target Social media campaigns can include social media

Digital marketing puts your business in front of potential customers when they want to find you. By identifying your target audience and establishing your messaging and brand positioning, you can narrow down which strategies and channels to use. Here is an A-Z overview of your digital marketing options.

online platforms to display advertisements to target

promote your company and its products or services.

like Bing also have paid programs.

Reputation marketing is a strategic approach to

marketing landscape. You can choose from various

LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Tiktok and YouTube to

audience and brand positioning.

Reputation marketing

Digital advertising is a key element of today’s

Social media marketing leverages platforms like

advertising platform; however, other search engines

Digital marketing A-Z

Advertising

Social media marketing

SEO offers businesses a chance to reach customers

Google, Bing and other popular search engines strive to deliver the most relevant results to their users. As a result, their algorithms are constantly being updated to promote the freshest, most relevant content and suppress low-quality web pages.

Plagiarism and keyword stuffing will not help you succeed in 2023. Instead, most experts agree that original expert content with crosslinks, backlinks and natural use of keywords is crucial in getting to the top.

advertising, social media posts, and influencer marketing.

You can reach a large, engaged audience and build brand awareness through social media marketing.

Video marketing Video marketing is an entertaining and attentiongrabbing tool with high engagement and conversion.

Video marketing traditionally includes product demos, explainer videos, and customer testimonials on channels like YouTube and Vimeo. TikTok is a novel social channel that increasingly offers businesses brand-building opportunities. Additionally, video ads are available on free apps like games and tools, which swap free mobile gaming for consumer data to help you target.

Web analytics Every business needs to understand its website traffic and user behaviour. Capturing, measuring, analysing and reporting online user activity is essential to understanding and optimising all forms of digital marketing.

Web analytics can include page views, bounce rates, conversion rates, and other key metrics. The most widely used tool for analysing website traffic is Google Analytics. However, other tools include Adobe Analytics, Semrush, Moz and more.

Webinars You can reach a large, geographically dispersed audience and deliver a rich, interactive experience with a webinar. Webinars took off in 2020 and remain popular as an effective way to deliver demonstrations or seminars to an interested audience. They enable you to interact directly with your customers, establish yourself as an expert, capture consumer data like emails, phone numbers and roles, and build on existing relationships.

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Sales and marketing - the perfect partners

Event marketing Event marketing promotes a product, service, or brand through live events, such as trade shows, product launches, and conferences. These events serve as a platform to connect with potential customers and create a positive, memorable experience.

You can host an event, attend an event or sponsor an event.

Event marketing is important because it allows companies to build trusted client relationships. You can meaningfully engage with customers and establish your brand image at events.

Social selling

It also provides the opportunity to collect valuable feedback and customer insights, which can inform future marketing strategies.

As a result, companies can increase brand awareness, generate leads, and drive sales by participating in events.

Event marketing is highly effective because it is face-to-face and interactive, allowing customers to engage with the brand in a dynamic and immersive way. In addition, it creates a positive

Social selling is a modern approach to sales that

Social selling involves making meaningful connections

uses social media to reach prospects, build

with prospects, so it is important to approach social

relationships, and engage with potential leads.

selling to build trust and loyalty rather than bombard

It replaces traditional methods such as cold

prospects with unwanted messages. Finding and

Event marketing also provides an opportunity to reach a targeted

calling and is not to be confused with social media

connecting with prospective clients on channels like

audience, as attendees are often pre-qualified and interested in

marketing or advertising.

LinkedIn can deliver incredible results if done correctly.

the products or services offered.

Social selling is a valuable element of a successful

Event marketing can increase brand awareness, customer

ABM&S strategy (see opposite).

engagement, and sales.

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experience that customers will associate with the brand long after the event has ended.

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Sales and marketing - the perfect partners

Account-based marketing and sales Account-Based Marketing and Sales

Some critical steps to implementing an

(ABM&S) is a targeted marketing approach

ABM&S strategy include:

focusing on individual accounts rather than entire markets. The goal of ABM&S

» I dentifying target accounts based on

is to personalise the marketing message to

company size, industry, and other

a specific set of high-value accounts and

relevant factors

build deeper relationships with the people in those accounts.

ABM&S is effective because it allows you to:

»F ocus your resources on the accounts that matter most

»C reate tailored experiences for each account that speaks directly to their unique needs

»C ollaborate across sales and marketing teams to drive more effective campaigns.

»C reating customised content and messaging specifically for each target account

» L everaging a variety of channels, including email, social media, and direct mail, to reach target accounts

»M easuring and analysing results to continually refine and improve the ABM approach.

ABM&S can be highly effective in industries where complex sales cycles and high-value deals are the norm. You can build stronger relationships with your most valuable prospects and customers by focusing on individual accounts and personalising the marketing message.

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Sales and marketing - the perfect partners

Refining your marketing approach for greater success Refining your approach based on results

Refining your marketing based on metrics is important because it allows your team to make data-driven decisions about their marketing efforts. By tracking and analysing metrics, sales and marketing managers can identify areas of strength and improvement and make informed decisions about optimising their marketing strategies.

Key metrics for tracking marketing success Tracking metrics and key performance

3. Customer acquisition cost

indicators (KPIs) in marketing is vital because

The cost of acquiring a new customer,

it allows you to measure the effectiveness

including all marketing and sales expenses.

of your marketing campaigns and strategies.

By tracking metrics, sales and marketing managers can gain insights into what

For example, if a marketing campaign has a

Similarly, if a campaign has a high customer

low conversion rate, marketers can analyse

acquisition cost, the sales director can

the data to determine why. They may discover

analyse the data to determine why and make

that the messaging needs to resonate better

changes to reduce that cost. For example,

their efforts.

with their target audience, the targeting

they may realise that they are targeting a

The top five marketing metrics to track are:

needs to be corrected, or the offer needs to

broad audience that is not a good fit for the

be more compelling. Based on these insights,

product and can refine their targeting to

they can refine their marketing by adjusting

focus on a more specific, high-value audience.

the messaging, targeting, or offer to better align with the needs of their audience.

works well and what does not, leading to data-driven decisions about optimising

1. Conversion rate The percentage of website visitors who take

The return on marketing investment; calculated by dividing the revenue generated by the cost of marketing.

5. Website traffic The number of website visitors provides insight into the effectiveness of online marketing efforts and can indicate areas

a desired action, such as filling out a form or

for improvement.

making a purchase.

By tracking these metrics, you can gain

2. Lead generation The number of leads generated through marketing efforts.

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4. Return on investment (ROI)

a deeper understanding of the results of your marketing efforts and make informed decisions about optimising your strategies and improving your return on investment.

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Sales and marketing - the perfect partners

Why sales needs marketing Marketing plays a key role in supporting

In addition, marketing can help companies

the sales pipeline. Well-executed marketing

achieve their commercial objectives by:

strategies can:

» I ncreasing brand recognition and building

»G enerate high-quality leads that are more likely to convert

»S peed up the sales cycle by providing prospects with the information they need to make a purchasing decision

» I ncrease the number of sales opportunities by reaching a wider audience

» I mprove the close rate by providing a consistent and compelling brand message throughout the sales process

brand equity

»D riving customer loyalty and repeat business »S upporting product launches and new product adoption

»A ttracting and retaining talent through employer branding efforts Bringing your sales and marketing teams together so they coordinate their efforts and appreciate each other’s goals, content plans and relationships with the customers can only

Effective marketing helps build brand

result in better results. Overall, marketing is

awareness, create interest in a product or

critical in achieving your company’s sales and

service, and ultimately drive sales. Marketing

commercial objectives because it attracts and

also helps establish your company’s position in

nurtures leads, builds brand recognition, and

the market and differentiate your products or

drives customer loyalty.

services from your competitors.

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Sales and marketing - the perfect partners

We are YOUR marketing team that delivers the growth and scale that YOU need.

Our marketing teams are experts in delivering marketing for scale-up businesses.

Equals Five’s broad and deep range of marketing experts means that we can deliver fully integrated sales and marketing strategies and programmes that are more than the sum of their parts.

All of our marketing specialists and experts are highly qualified and experienced, we only recruit the best, and our success is intrinsically linked to yours.

Why Equals Five?

and not an art. » We are your own dedicated marketing team, at a fraction of the cost. » We provide all the marketing specialists, and experts, that you need to help you grow and scale your business. The big difference is that all these

Whether your aim is to generate sales pipeline, build

experts work for you part-time, under contract, so you

your brand reputation, open up new routes to market

only pay for these marketing specialists when you

or to better exploit your existing customer base, your

need them.

marketing team from Equals Five will help you to build and execute those marketing strategies and programmes that meet those goals, and deliver tangible business results for your company.

A complete marketing team for the same cost as a Senior Marketing Manager!*

» We understand that marketing is a science,

» We really get to know your business because we are part of your business! We are part of your team. We work for you, we are committed, focused and dedicated.

Imagine having an experienced, and complete, marketing team for the same cost as a fully weighted, full-time, senior marketing manager!*

Are you ready to take a giant leap forward with your marketing?

Are you ready to build your dream marketing team? Are you ready to take a giant leap forward in the way you market and scale your business?

Then please get in touch for an informal chat on how we can help you achieve your aspirations for your business.

Please contact us by emailing us at hello@equalsfive.co.uk or by calling us on +44 (0) 1202 201930

*Costs based upon a fully employed senior marketing manager, with a London weighting, in January 2023.

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