Work with your marketing team

Much has been written about the inherent conflict between sales andmarketing. You should consider the marketing department one of your mostvaluable sales tools as they provide the product positioning, messaging andinformation to all of your prospects and customers so you don’t have to.Working with the marketing team as opposed to against or in isolation fromthem will increase the revenue you bring in through sales. Five easy things you can do to help your marketing team help you:

1. Tell them what you need.
Be specific and explain why you need it. If you don’t explain what kind of collateral or research you need, marketinghas to guess. But they’re not in the field every day talking to customers,trying to overcome objections, and solving problems for their customers. Youknow better than they do what will help you close sales.
2. Respect their expertise and knowledge
You know best what you need, but the marketing team knows a few things too.They know how to create communication that is effective, they know how tospeak to the target audiences, and they know advertising strategy. (Theyknow a lot more than that too, but we’ll stop there). Have open and honestdiscussions with your marketing team—exchange ideas, but don’t expect everyone of your ideas to make it to the final drawing board.
3. Don’t make them do your job
If marketing professionals hate one thing, it is when salespeople ask themto do their job. Marketers might manage the database, but it is yourresponsibility to input correct data in the format requested. Sure, you’rebusy, but get yourself a business card scanner and the data will be in thesystem in seconds. CardScan even makes scanners that synchronize directlywith the most common CRM systems, such as Microsoft CRM, Salesforce.com andACT!. A few seconds of your time will earn you lots of love from yourmarketing team.
4. Close the loop- provide feedback
Have your customers or prospects told you that an ad they saw wasparticularly compelling? Totally irrelevant? Again, your marketing teamneeds to know. Marketers are usually the last to hear the feedback fromcustomers about their efforts, so if you can pass along a suggestion orcomment, it will make their communications that much more effective for you..
5. Get to know your marketing team
My mother always used to say, “You can catch more flies with honey than withvinegar.” Getting to know your marketing team on a more personal level willgive them a stake in wanting to help you. Friends help each other, andfavors are less of a burden when you get along with the person you areasking. Break the cycle of the antagonistic sales/marketing relationship.

You’ll quickly find that you’ll do better personally and the company will dobetter as a whole when there is a positive relationship between sales andmarketing.