As more organizations eye a strategic switch from traditional outbound marketing (print ads, cold calls, TV, and billboards) to consultative inbound marketing, it’s grown essential to drive greater alignment between sales and marketing. No longer is it possible for sales and marketing to exist as separate silos with a contentious relationship – the advent of smarketing means these functions are two sides of the same coin.

What is smarketing? 

Put simply, it’s the combination of marketing and sales alignment. Smarketing represents a new turn in the way things are done in a world increasingly dominated by responsive e-commerce: It’s a “closed-loop” system where sales and marketing teams contribute, share, and refine the data both groups need to produce the best possible results.

Why Smarketing is Essential to Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing relies on creating a personalized brand experience, driving the qualified lead through the sales funnel as a result of providing the right content at the right moment. In the inbound future, you might have a great marketing strategy on paper – but it won’t ignite unless the sales team is equipped to read, use, and understand prospect data that helps close customers.

Inbound marketing methods naturally drive alignment between sales and marketing experts. Both sales and marketing teams identify prospect goals; marketing teams build those goals into the collateral the prospect encounters. But if this is where the process ends, insights won’t flow from sales to marketing and vice-versa throughout the life of the campaign. 

That means leaving big opportunities on the table.

Forging a Mature, Repeatable Smarketing Process

With scientific, metric-focused marketing in its heyday, leaders realize that any process, no matter how good it looks in theory, hasn’t truly arrived unless it can be repeated across multiple campaigns. Sales and marketing alignment takes time, but the hard facts show it is worthwhile. 

 According to research from inbound marketing trendsetter HubSpot:

• Misalignment between sales and marketing costs 10% of annual revenue or more.
• High levels of sales and marketing alignment raise sales win rates by 38% or more.
• Good smarketing processes can increase revenue from marketing efforts by 208%.

How can corporate leaders create the efficient, closed-loop system they need? People, processes, and technology need to be aligned behind new and innovative goals. Naturally, it’s important to create a collaborative mindset by bringing sales and marketing to the table on campaigns. Consistent, timely communication is essential.

For fast, successful change, however, look to the technology element.

Customer Relationship Management is the Key to Getting Smarketing Up and Running Fast

A customer relationship management system (CRM) helps integrate effective smarketing reporting and collaboration into a campaign at every step. By providing full-scale visibility into each prospect's journey and brand experience as it evolves, sales and marketing pros alike can be empowered to see the business insights hidden in the data and make use of them.

While a CRM won’t resolve all the challenges associated with lasting, positive change in your organization, it will provide you with the tools you need to get started and iterate fast. The sooner that happens, the sooner team members will be working together and holding one another accountable for shared success.

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