AI-powered analytics in sales and marketing could be the next great differentiator. This advanced mechanism is becoming increasingly essential in today’s society as these teams must employ these new technologies on a large scale to remain competitive.

A lack of alignment between your sales and marketing teams and a lack of access to cross-functional data creates a plethora of challenges that can impact and even block revenue. 

What’s the problem with “traditional” marketing?

Traditionally, the sales and marketing teams have existed in parallel universes. Marketing generates an avalanche of content for the sales team, and the sales team finds the material offered insufficient, and that’s if they find the right content at all.

The sales team believe marketers do not generate enough sales-ready quality leads, and so they want more opportunities to engage prospects and boost brand awareness. On the other hand, marketing requires more follow-up on leads generated and feedback on initiatives from the sales team, and yet this is where collaboration breaks down.

Such siloed approaches are a barrier to collaboration and do not produce the vibrant outcomes both teams strive for. According to a LinkedIn study, the impact of a lack of coordination between sales and marketing is not only a source of employee annoyance but also wastes an estimated $1 trillion annually in the United States alone. 

With such worrisome figures, you would think it would compel both sides to work together and make silos a thing of the past. Regrettably, this is not yet the case.

Great things happen when marketers and sellers set aside their differences and focus on cooperating toward a common objective and reap the benefits of a fruitful buying experience for customers.

Investing in insight-led marketing technologies can help avoid this significant communication issue between your sales and marketing teams and finally break down the barriers of siloed working to unlock streams of new revenue.

Why hasn’t insight-led marketing taken off sooner?

Insight-led marketing is made possible by sales enablement platforms. However, it is still a relatively new term and concept. Designed for the modern era of business, it encourages cross-function coordination and challenges the status quo of the past. As with anything that challenges the status quo, it takes time for mindsets to shift to a new way of thinking and doing. 

Sales enablement is about providing your sales teams with the tools, information and content they need to sell even more effectively, but it also enables insight-led marketing through useful sales data on collateral created by your marketing team. Unfortunately, there have been, and still remain, misconceptions within marketing that it is a tool only relevant to the sales team which continues to hinder its usefulness.

Insight-led marketing can take businesses to new heights thanks to the increased efficiency it provides both teams and the more detailed training programmes that can be created based on the data from sales practice. 

When marketing circles become familiar and comfortable with sales enablement and are not hindered by the misconception that it is only for the sales team, then sales-led marketing insights will be unlocked. Bridging the gap between marketing and sales is the key to generating more sales leads, greater success with prospects and increasing revenue.

How will businesses benefit from the right collaborative platform?

Though sales enablement tools, such as Highspot, have a direct impact on your sales and marketing teams, its implementation will see further benefits across the business.

As a result of the in-depth data collected, the marketing function will gain full oversight and better understanding of how and when their content is used by sales professionals, as well as how well it resonates with customers. This means your organisation can make more accurate strategic decisions on where marketing spend will be most effective at generating leads as well as test, improve, and evolve your customer facing content in order to optimise and report on income earned. 

And, while your businesses may have official training and upskilling programmes in place, a collaborative work atmosphere encourages learning in a more organic manner that fosters a better culture. Individual team members can learn from one another by giving and receiving feedback within the sales enablement platform and exchanging diverse points of view.

Sales enablement technologies, thanks to ever-improving AI technology, provide a single source of truth for your marketing and sales teams. Keeping all of your collateral in one place for easy access, while collecting useful data to help future marketing and sales decisions.

It also creates the foundation for alignment and collaboration between marketing and sales, which in turn can unlock revenue for your business you didn’t know you were missing. 

This large schism between marketing and sales has no place in the future of business. It is time for the two to truly join forces, align their interests, and reclaim some of that $1 trillion!