When many of us hear the term salesperson, we cringe. We immediately think of all the times we've been talked into something or ups♛old, ending up as un𓂃happy customers with buyer's remorse. 

But this is an outdated and൲ stereotypical view that does🍎n't bear much resemblance to the best salespeople in the game today. 

Modern sales professionals — at least the most effective — are more focused on educating and guiding than selling. They are about helping customers to make the best decisions for them, not 💦bamboozling them into buying something they don't need.

This modern ap🃏proach to sales is much more closely aligned with marketing than it was in the 💯past.

168极速赛车官网:And so it should be. 

The sales and marketing overlap

Sales can learn from marketing ☂— and marketing can learn from sales. Indeed, the🔯y should work together. 

This means a more consistent customer experience, better marketing materials, and sales process built on educ🃏ation and trust.  

When you look at the numbers, t𓃲he case for fostering sales and marketing alignment in a company speaks for itself.

Outfunnel's found that small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) "that struggle with disjointed marketing and sales teams are twice as likely to miss reven🔯ue goals, while those with great alignment more commonly exceed them."

Even more striking, the same report found 58% of sales and marketing profe🐲ssionals don’ﷺt feel well aligned, a significant increase from 46% just last year.

Working with hundreds of organizations across the world, we've found that one of the best ways to align marketing and sales is to establish what we call a Revenue Team.

Modern sales and marketing teams are working toward the same goal

It’s estimated that 80% of the buying decision happens in the research phase, before a prospect even dreams of reaching out to someone in sales. In fact,ไ are doing online reไsearch before they make a purchase of any kind, whether through a search engine or an AI tool.

In other words, marketing lᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚays the foundation for sales to build upon.

Sales needs to inform marketing of what customers are looking for.  Marketing then needs to create the right content and experience around thisꦍ information. Then, sales needs to close the leads marketing delivers based on this.

This interdependence is why the two depar𓆏tments need to wo🍌rk together. 

Considering the numbers above, giving revenue growth responsibility to the sales team alone doesn’t make se🔴nse. By the time prospects have gotten in touch with sales, the majority of their decision has already been made.

Similarly, marketing can't hold the full responsibility as if they don't know what ♛works from the sales team, the content and experiences they create will just be educat🧸ed guesses. 

With the way modern buyers make purchases, operating in silos is no longer a💫n option for sales and maওrketing.

But how do you actually al✅ign sales and marketing?

The power of the 'Revenue Team'

Tactically speaking, a Revenue Team is a group of key players ไfrom sales, marketing, and leadershipꦏ teams that collaborate around the shared goal of increasing revenue through traffic, leads, and sales.

Yes, some people on the team will be more focused on marketing efforts (e.g. creating content) or sales effo🀅rts (e.g. closing deals). But the team acts as one, identifying and working towards their common goal.

For instance, say you’re responsible for the development, implementation, anꦦd oversight of content strategy (both written and video), as well as the management of your content team.

That won’t change when you join the Revenue Team.💙 Instead, your role within the Revenue Team and the conversations that come out of it (more on that shortly), will strongly influence how you do your job.

The Revenue Team primarily focuses on getting sales and ma😼rketing on the same page. This means:

• Sales keeps marketing up to date on the questions they are being asked by buyers.
• Marketing keeps sales up to date on the content that's being produced. 
• The Revenue Team determines what sales enablement content needs to come next.

Outside of the meeting:

• Sales reps make themselves available to aid in content creation.
• Sales uses content created in the sales process (or in what we call 168极速赛车官网:assignment selling).
• Marketing monitors content performance so they can refine the strategy.

Overa༒ll, instead of two competing teams with independent priorities, the members of this singular unit work together to achieve their mutual goal of revenue growth through true collaboration, information-sharing, brainstorming, and problem-solving.

The benefits of a Revenue Team

The success of a Revenue Team leads to a nuಌmber of benef𝓰its. Let's break them down and what they look like at an organization: 

More effective marketing content

• The sales team heavily influences the editorial calendar and content prioritization.
• Better content means better leads, more educated customers, and smoother sales.
• You can finally tie revenue to marketing efforts.

Optimized sales cycle

• The length of the sales cycle decreases, as leads become prospects and prospects become customers faster than before.
• Customers feel more trusting toward a company that educates instead of pitches.
• Many of the questions once answered face-to-face (or at least by a human in sales) can now be answered by content on your website that is easily self-discovered by visitors. 

Better alignment

• Sales and marketing teams are fully aligned, trust each other, and have mutual respect. Once per week meetings mean they have an open line of communication.
• The sales team understands and sees the value of its role in creating content that drives revenue.
• Salespeople are more fulfilled and happier in their roles.
• Marketers see more value in their work, taking pride in the direct connection between what they produce and the revenue generated for their company.

How to run a successful Revenue Team meeting

🍸The Revenue Team meeting is the foundation of your group's collaboration and, honestly, it's where the magic hapꦇpens.

A successful Revenue Team m🥃eeting🍨 depends on six things:

1. Understand the purpose
2. Ensure the right cross-section of people are involved in the Revenue Team
3. Decide how often the Revenue Team will meet
4. Set the Revenue Team meeting agenda
5. Have a Revenue Team meeting facilitator
6. Ensure there is a way to communicate outside of the Revenue Team meeting 

If you can check those six boxes, you'll have the right people in the right place working 𝓰on the right thing𒅌s. 

Ready to get started?

The Revenue Team is an🍒 essential antidote to the age-old scourge of modern business:  Siloed teams with competing agendas that never see eye to eye.

But we know that this article only scrꦜatches the surface. You'll need to know more to put everything into place.

You can dive into all the details as well as sample agendas in this full article 168极速赛车官网:"How to Run a Revenue Meeting."