Smarketing: how to integrate marketing and sales with Inbound

One of the main challenges of a marketing manager is being able to develop strategies that help the sales team achieve many sales. We know that the relationship between the two sectors is not always easy. In this way, smarketing emerges as a great alternative to integrate marketing and sales.

Still don't know this method? Don't worry. In this article, we will explain what its benefits are and how to implement it in your company. Follow along!

Find out what smarketing is

The term is a combination of the words sales and marketing. Despite having a common objective, the two departments usually act separately.

The objective of smarketing is to ensure that communication between sales and marketing is aligned at all stages of the sales funnel. This alignment will be responsible for the process of capturing and converting lead be more effective.

Check out the main advantages:

• team optimization: by joining efforts, the two departments will be able to optimize the time of their activities, as they will have each other's help. Furthermore, smarketing encourages the exchange of knowledge between employees. While salespeople are more comfortable with numbers, the marketing team is more creative;
• strengthening the brand: by aligning the communication of the two departments, it is possible to send the same message to the customer. The commercial will be able to fulfill what the marketing promises. After all, they defined the strategy together.

See now how to implement this strategy in your company.

Encourage communication

The first step is to encourage communication between teams. Promote periodic meetings or even change the physical position of departments. Transparency in communication is fundamental at this stage.

Create the persona

In an Inbound Marketing strategy, one of the first steps is defining a persona, Is not it? This ideal customer is usually defined by the marketing team, but in smarketing the idea is that the commercial team also assists in this process.

The experience of salespeople can contribute a lot and bring new insights to capturing leads.

Establish SLA between teams

The SLA (Service Level Agreement) is a contract established between two parties: the one who wants to offer a service and the one who will benefit from it.

Generally carried out between companies, the document details the type of service that will be offered, the expected results, execution time, those responsible for the project, among other points.

You can use a similar record when implementing smarketing, detailing each employee's roles to achieve the end goal. It’s a way to guide teams through the process.

Set common goals

Having a shared goal is a way to encourage teams. The main objective sought by both departments is to convert the lead into a customer, right?

Achieving this goal depends on marketing, which will develop the sales funnel, and on salespeople, who need to have a precise approach. Therefore, it is fair that the teams have the same goal, as they will work together.

Integrate the tools

When working with marketing and sales in isolation, there is a risk that many qualified leads will be lost along the way and that unqualified leads will reach the end of the funnel, making the sales approach less efficient.

For salespeople to have access to the history of leads nurtured by marketing, there must be a tool integration used by teams.

Therefore, it is important to have a platform (CRM, automation, marketing, among others) that integrates the sales process and optimizes the sales team's approach.

Integrating marketing and sales is a trend that is gaining more and more strength in companies. In this article, you saw what smarketing is, the main benefits of this strategy and how to implement it.

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Marcel Castilho

Marcel Castilho is a specialist in digital marketing, neuromarketing, neuroscience, mindfulness and positive psychology. In addition to being an advertiser, he also has a Master's degree in Neurolinguistic Programming. He is the founder and owner of Vero Comunicação and also the digital agency Vero Contents.