Years ago, we wrote the below to emphasize the importance of sales and marketing working together utilizing technology such as CRM. Today with integrations and Data intelligence this is easier than ever…In a perfect world, marketing and sales departments work together seamlessly, with Marketing delivering quality leads to Sales, and Sales utilizing those leads to close deals and generate revenue. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world – often times Marketing and Sales work in “silos” and don’t always communicate effectively when it comes to leads and sales. Aligning your Marketing and Sales teams can immediately make an impact on your sales cycle times and revenue, and isn’t as difficult as it sounds.

Using systems you may already have in place can be an easy way to get Marketing and Sales working together and communicating effectively. If you have a CRM tool currently in use (such as Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics) you can integrate with your Marketing Automation tool (such as Marketo, Pardot) and very quickly see how integration benefits both teams and the company bottom line.

Marketing Automation determines triggers and campaigns that nurture prospects during the buying process. Once a lead has been scored and determined to be sales-ready, then it can be handed off to Sales. The CRM tool helps Sales to bring the lead through the sales process. Using both systems allows Marketing to assign a lead to Sales, and then Sales can track all communication with the lead until a sale is made.

Integrating Marketing and Sales can have a huge impact on your company’s bottom line – using systems you may already have in place. Utilizing CRM and Marketing Automation can bring better customer insight, increased communication between teams, and ultimately, higher sales and lower sales cycle times.