Smarketing: The Perfect Strategy to Align Sales and Marketing

Have you ever heard of Smarketing? It is not a term that we invented, but rather a relatively recent neologism which is nothing more than the fusion of Sales and Marketing.

More than a word, Smarketing is a real strategic and operational method in which the common objectives of the two departments are aligned, with the ultimate aim of achieving specific business results and therefore increasing company revenue.

Like many other specific micro-strategies, Smarketing is also placed under the big hat of Inbound Marketing, the commercial and communication method that has revolutionized, across the board, all sectors and the way in which they speak with their customers and prospects.

Within the Inbound Marketing funnel, Smarketing comes to life in the so-called closing phase of the negotiation, i.e. when the Marketer transfers the so-called qualified sales opportunities to the Sales team. At this point it will be up to the commercial department to close the negotiations positively , and doing so will be easier thanks to the careful analysis carried out by colleagues throughout the operational phase of, in fact, marketing.

In Smarketing, it is essential that both the marketing and sales teams are perfectly synchronized and oriented towards a common result, i.e. the increase in brand revenue. At the basis of Smarketing, therefore, there is a virtuous communication between two departments that have so far almost never cooperated well: according to Hubspot, in fact, as much as 87% of the terms that the two teams use to describe the other is not exactly positive! If, on the one hand, the Marketers believe that the Salesyou do not adequately consider their leads, on the other the sales professionals report receiving loyal or inadequate leads.

It’s easy to understand what the advantage of Smarketing is, isn’t it? Align these two departments essential to the success of brands in order to optimize their activities, with the additional competitive advantage of hitting really ready-to-buy leads. The perfect cohesion between two such different work teams has a common basis: the final objective, which we have already mentioned. In Smarketing, Sales and Marketing become two halves of the same apple.

Let’s see together what the real objectives of Smarketing are:

• Increase ROI for both the Sales department and the Marketing area
• Improve relationships between different professionals (Team Building)
• Achieve business objectives related to the company as a whole
• Implement fluid and successful methods and practices from pre-sales to post-sales
• Meet the commercial expectations of customers (potential or acquired)

If we were then to place the figures of Smarketing within the classic Inbound Marketing funnel composed of TOFU, MOFU and BOFU, this would be the result:

• Top of the Funnel (TOFU): Marketing Area
• Middle of the Funnel (MOFU): Marketing Area + Sales Area
• Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU): Sales Area

As you can see, the work is divided equally and is synergistic in the essential central phase of the project. Both teams must therefore speak the same language and communicate with each other constantly, so as to maintain synergy always effective and, above all, aligned. Together, the two teams will have to define fundamental specifications related to the project, such as:

• Identification of the buyer person
• Understanding of mutual functions
• Definition of micro and macro-project objectives

The first step of Smarketing is therefore very simple: communicate more, communicate better. It is no coincidence that regular meetings are the basis of this method, because they facilitate an open communication on all the activities in progress and in the making.