Member Article

The evolution of sales: have sales and marketing grown up to be friends?

The workplace is evolving at an alarming rate. Once upon a time the workplace was simply a place where people would turn up, complete a day’s work, then leave for home.

The boundaries between home and work were very clear.

Today, these same boundaries are blurred.

With employers expecting employees to work longer hours, commit more emotional time to the workplace and grow an actual bond to the company they work for, the workplace has become far more home-like than ever before. Kitchens, table-tennis tables, sofas, televisions – all once typical home contents, are now commonplace in the office.

In the same way, departments have begun to merge too. The once clean cut divide between the likes of sales and marketing have become closer, almost as if they are working together towards one common goal, utilising the same technology in different ways to meet specific targets and objectives.

In fact the sales and marketing merger is one that has been written about significantly in recent years, labelled ‘sarketing’. One of the common drivers here is technology. Like never before, sales and marketing professionals are using the same innovative tools to get closer to customers and engage on a whole new level.

From transaction to construction

Once sales was so transactional, today it involves relationships, constructive discussions and shared objectives.

Here are TWO tools that might originally have been commonplace in the marketing department, but are now creeping into sales:

1. Social media: Essentially, engagement tools. Great for marketing professionals targeted with reaching out to new audiences with key messages and products. The likes of Twitter have enables marketing teams to gain access into territories that were previously well-guarded.

For sales teams, in a world where trust is no more important than knowledge (if you want to know if you’re being ripped off you simply check a competitor on Google) social media offer an opportunity to be transparent, open and, most importantly, available. Direct selling (the ‘are you ready to buy?’ approach) on social channels might not be the best investment of time but sharing advice, tips and knowledge – a must for sales.

2. Website intelligence: The brains behind the company website have long lived in the marketing department. How many visitors do we get? Which page is popular? When is the site being updated next? All questions for someone in the marketing function. But, now that certain savvy sales professionals are realising the benefits of understanding just how much business is conducted online, they are keen on looking into the likes of Google Analytics (web tool to assess visitor numbers and where they arrived from) as it helps build intelligence on who and where their customers are.

Why invest all your time selling one product when you know that 90% of web traffic is for another? As competition grows, sales professionals must remain shrewd, sharp and astute in terms of where they spend their time. Website intelligence supports precisely this.

At durhamlane our #1 Sales Mantra Business fit. Business value. Long-term relationships. What this refers to is the background work, the intelligence, involved in building long lasting and fruitful relationships with clients. The technology and tools that can support this objective, were once exclusive to the marketing world. Not anymore. Today, it’s less about protecting the ‘way we do things’ and more about sharing expertise, knowledge and the innovative tools and processes that can build successful businesses.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by durhamlane .