3 Tips on How to Increase Sales Like an All-Star Relay Team

sales and marketing hand-off of baton Have you ever felt like your sales team and marketing team were so disconnected they aren’t even in the same building, let alone working for the same company? Imagine a small business environment where the marketing team and the sales team are not just in the same stadium, wearing the same uniform, but like a track and field 4x100 relay team, they are also running in the same lane and can perform a smooth hand-off of the baton! The baton must not be dropped and the smoothness of the hand-off can make or break your team reaching company goals.

Wow, how much faster could your business reach its goals of increased sales if sales and marketing weren’t so disconnected? Think of the feeling the lead will have when they have a smooth transition from ingesting inbound marketing materials and speaking with a salesperson and going through the sales process. If you are wondering how to increase sales and reach your business goals as quickly and effectively as possible, sales and marketing need to work together- they need to be team mates!

For some businesses this may seem like a far fetched dream that will never be a reality. For others, all you may need to do is streamline your hand-offs or get your team members in better positions.

Here are a few tips using inbound marketing strategies that will increase sales and help you reach your business goals faster. By aligning your sales and marketing teams (even if the teams are composed of one person) your company can more effectively increase sales and get more customers.

Communicate! Speak the same language and get on the same team!

Create goals together. Since sales is very much number driven, help marketers learn the numbers. If a sales team has a goal of 100 sales, your marketing team needs to feed them at least 10,000 leads which means you need to attract 100,000 visitors to your website. Phew! That might sound like a lot of work, but if you are working together, using inbound marketing strategies, it will happen!

Strategize around the same buyer personas; both teams need to be speaking to the same types of people. Understand what important information needs to be shared with leads at the different stages in the buyer’s journey. Do they need general product information or do they have specific questions answered because they are ready to buy now.

Plan the perfect hand-off.

Leads are passed from marketing to sales, but thought needs to be put into when this should happen. One of the key questions inbound marketing helps answer is the question: “Is the lead qualified enough to be sales ready?” Passing off too soon or too late could end up in a dropped lead. Increase the odds for your sales team by handing off leads who are a good fit and have high interest.

Reward both as one team!

If you run the race together and reach your goals, shouldn’t you celebrate together? Humans love rewards and if you are wondering how to increase sales- put out the carrot- for all those involved with attracting and generating leads to those who close the sale.

Whether your marketing and sales team are the same person or your company has over 100 people on both teams, speaking the same language and aligning your goals, creating smooth hand-offs and celebrating together will only improve what you are already doing well and it will increase your sales. We also call this Smarketing (aligning sales and marketing).

Looking for more information on how to increase sales in your small business and get your sales and marketing on the same page? At Half a Bubble Out, we not only do inbound marketing really well to generate more leads, but we also do business consulting to help increase sales and generate passion and provision in your business. Contact us today for a free evaluation and see how you can improve the hand-offs between your sales and marketing teams.