3 Ways to Create a Strong Partnership with Your Marketing Agency

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Partnering with an outside marketing agency is a common business practice in almost every industry. Whether it’s outsourcing a website design or partnering with an agency on an ongoing monthly retainer, a majority of businesses work with a marketing agency at some point along the way. 3 Ways to Create a Strong Partnership with Your Marketing Agency How do you guarantee the relationship with your marketing agency is mutually beneficial? Here are three things I’ve learned after being on both sides of the table and spending the last decade in the agency world:
  1. Have a Collective Focus on a Common Goal
Successful partnerships require an extreme focus on a common goal. What is your business trying to achieve? How will you ultimately measure success? Making sure your marketing agency is aware of your goals will help them identify the best ways to support it.
  1. Get Buy-In from Across the Business
Without buy-in from across the business, it’s difficult for a marketing agency to support your business as effectively as it could. Finance simply sees the agency as a line item that can be reduced. Sales teams see the marketing agency as more of a project handler rather than a true partner. Creating buy-in from across the business requires making sure everyone within your organization is aware of the work the agency is doing. It also means allowing the agency to have insights into some of the challenges your business is facing in different areas, in case there are ways they can support.
  1. Establish Clarity and Alignment Around Expectations
Effective agency partnerships involve constant communication, and almost all the hard work is done upfront. Without alignment around expectations and having the trust of the leadership team that the investment is worth the effort, partnerships can fail before they even get started. Clarifying expectations around everything from results to how you handle email communication is key to making sure both parties maintain their sanity during the partnership. At the end of the day, partnerships come back to the people on either side. If there’s clear communication, mutual buy-in, and a shared goal, the people on both teams can collaborate together as if they both worked under the same roof.

3 Ways Internal Sales Teams & External Marketing Agencies Can Thrive Together

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Marketing should exist to be a strategic asset for business development. That includes equipping the sales team with the information and tools they need to be successful. But, creating the kind of collaboration that’s necessary for a thriving partnership isn’t always easy—especially between an outside marketing agency and an internal sales team. Oftentimes, a marketing agency works directly with one person on projects, either a business development leader or a marketing manager. Most of the work that’s being done by the agency isn’t directly connected to the day-to-day activities of the sales team. As a result, the sales team often wonders what the marketing agency is doing…and the marketing agency is wondering why the sales team isn’t taking advantage of all the work they’re doing. How Internal Sales Teams & External Marketing Agencies Can Thrive Together So, how do you create a type of culture where an external marketing agency can thrive with your entire sales team? Here are a few keys I’ve learned over the past few years…
  1. Make Sure Your Sales Team Feels Supported by the Work the Agency is Doing
Having a partnership where your sales team knows and trusts your marketing agency is key to an effective partnership. When sales and marketing agencies work together, there’s a certain amount of marketing that needs to be done for reps within the organization. While most marketing agencies work on specific projects or marketing campaigns, one way they can provide value to the sales team is by doing all of the heavy lifting for the “marketing work” that sales reps should do. This includes getting your agency to help with things like email scripts, sample social media content, and buyer personas that your sales team can use to be more effective and efficient.  
  1. Find Ways to Keep the Communication Lines Flowing
It’s critical for a marketing agency to communicate on a regular basis with relevant, important information that can help sales with customers and potential deals. Find ways for your sales team to connect with your marketing agency, whether it’s setting up monthly or quarterly meetings, weekly phone calls, etc. This provides an opportunity for your marketing agency to make sure sales is aware of all the activity that’s going on. It also provides your marketing agency with an opportunity to identify the biggest obstacles your sales team is facing so they can help create solutions for them.
  1. Inspire Both Teams with Success Stories
Celebration is another important key to collaboration. Highlight the success your sales team is having with your marketing agency. Let your sales team know about the projects and key learnings your marketing agency has discovered through their work. Finding times to celebrate the collaborative wins between your external agency and the internal sales team is key to ensuring the two teams are locking arms rather than pointing fingers.

The 3 Biggest Factors for a Successful Business/Agency Relationship

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In today’s world, it’s not uncommon for a business to partner with a marketing agency, even if they have a full-time, in-house marketing team. Whether it’s a specific project or ongoing partnership, many businesses realize they simply don’t have enough time and resources internally to accomplish everything that needs to be done from a marketing perspective. However, marketing agencies come in all sorts of shapes and sizes; each has its own unique philosophy, approach, style, and strengths. Some are better fits for your business than others…and vice versa. While many businesses choose an agency because of their impressive creative portfolio or industry experience, the truth is that there’s a lot more that goes into a successful business/agency relationship. In many ways, it’s the intangible factors that make the biggest difference on both sides of the relationship. The 3 Biggest Factors for a Successful Client/Agency Relationship So, how can businesses and marketing agencies work together to form a relationship where everyone wins? Here are three key factors:
  1. Chemistry Across the Entire Team
When you hire a marketing agency, you’re ultimately hiring the people who work at that agency. As with all relationships, chemistry matters. Part of determining a good fit comes down to selecting an agency that can operate as an extension of your team and roll up their sleeves to work with you, not just for you. That includes the leadership level and those responsible for executing the day-to-day project management tasks.
  1. A Common Approach to Business
Do you tend to take more risks or play it safe when it comes to growing your business? Are you looking for new and innovative ways to achieve your goals, or are you looking for someone to help execute tried-and-true principles? Answering these questions is essential for choosing the right agency partner. Partnering with an agency that has a general philosophy and approach to business is different for use will only cause frustration for both parties.
  1. Sweet Spots that Align with Your Greatest Needs
Although most agencies consider themselves to be full-service, each has a “sweet spot” where they tend to excel. It might be web design, content creation, sales support, or public relations. Determining your greatest marketing need, even if you’re looking for a long-term partnership, is critical for finding the best possible fit. As someone who’s worked in the agency business for over a decade, I’ve seen my fair share of unhealthy client/agency relationships. No one starts working with an agency hoping it becomes a burden. Taking the time to evaluate these qualitative factors (in addition to their portfolio or experience) will help you identify the right agency for your business and ensure everyone benefits from a successful partnership.

3 Marketing Metrics Your Sales Team Should Know

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Good sales teams are incredibly disciplined when it comes to monitoring the metrics that impact their ability to achieve their overall goals. Whether it’s certain sales cycle metrics, close rates, or deal rates, most sales professionals know exactly what they need to do to meet their quotas. However, most sales people are clueless when it comes to determining which marketing metrics impact their efforts. 3 Marketing Metrics Your Sales Team Should Know While your sales team may never be interested in knowing website activity, email performance, or social media interactions, here are three marketing metrics they should be paying attention to:
  1. Lead Response Time. The rise of inbound marketing means companies are becoming more focused on online tactics to generate leads. However, research has shown that lead response time is one of the most important metrics for effective inbound marketing. Companies that wait a full 24 hours before contacting the lead are 60 times less likely to qualify the lead than those who responded within the first hour. Speed of response is key.
  2. Content Consumption Metrics. Knowing the most type of content that is consumed most by your audience is another valuable insight to track. This gives you perspective into the ideas and concepts they’re most interested in. In many cases, a CRM can provide you with insights on the specific content a prospect has downloaded or read. If you don’t have that kind of detailed insight, knowing your most popular resources can provide a decent understanding.
  3. Velocity. Velocity represents how quickly a qualified lead can turn into a closed deal. This provides an idea for the number of leads you need at any given time in order to hit your upcoming revenue goals. Knowing how long it takes for a lead to convert provides both sales and marketing with a better understanding of what they need to do to hit their goals.
If marketing impacts your buyer’s decision in any way, shape, or form, it’s important to know the activities that influence them most. These three metrics will provide you with a solid foundation of the marketing metrics that impact your ability to meet your quotas and achieve your goals.

Meet our Owner/Chief Strategist: Samantha Pyle

Samantha Owens Pyle is a strategic visionary, marketing strategist, and proud puppy mom to Charlie and Ford. As the owner and chief strategist at Green Apple Strategy, LLC, Samantha leads the team in developing and executing integrated marketing strategies for clients in a way that maximizes revenue potential and increases consumer appeal. With more than twenty years of experience as a senior-level marketing and communications leader, Samantha has developed a unique skill set that has positively affected growth and profitability for a variety of businesses and industries. Over her career, Samantha has helped local and national business-to-business and business-to-consumer companies develop and execute comprehensive marketing plans that include print and digital advertising, public and media relations, promotional events, websites, email, mobile marketing, and social media. When she’s not working, Sam can be found hiking with her pups, poolside, or heading to a Dave Matthews Band show (to date she has seen them live more than 50 times). She and her husband love traveling and Sam is close to checking off a visit to each of the 50 U.S. states. Sam is an EO Nashville member, and board member, and also serves as the Board President of the Survivor Fitness Foundation.

5 Questions Marketing Teams Should Consistently Ask Your Sales Team

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Do they really understand the sales process? How can we get them to create more quality leads? I’m not sure what they do?

These are all common complaints I hear from business development professionals about their marketing teams.

Like I’ve mentioned before, marketing should exist to be a strategic asset for business development. One practical way that happens is by constantly evaluating the impact your marketing efforts are making on sales and how your marketing team can continue to improve the way it’s supporting business development.

5 Questions Marketing Teams Should Consistently Ask Your Sales Team

In order to make those things happen, here are five questions marketing team members should be asking their business development colleagues in order to be more effective:

1. What problems do we solve for our customers? What are we better at than anyone in our industry?

Knowing the challenges your customers face—and how you’re uniquely equipped to help them—is essential for sharing a clear and compelling marketing message. Positioning your brand as an industry leader isn’t easy. It takes a lot of work to discover the thing that you’re truly best at doing. But from a marketing perspective, discovering that “thing” becomes the product or service you can invest the most time, energy, and resources promoting.

2. Where have we helped solve a major challenge before?

Sharing success stories is one of the most effective ways to create demand for your products or services. Your sales team should know the customer who experienced a breakthrough because of the thing you provided them.

3. What are the common characteristics shared by customers who buy from us?

Understanding the common characteristics of the customers who pay you allows you to create personas of your ideal target audience. Creating “look-a-like” personas is important for your marketing team, as it impacts everything from how they create content on social media to where they invest marketing dollars.

4. What are the most common questions you get during the sales process?

Almost every sales team has a list of common questions that are asked by prospective customers. How much is ___________? Would we still have to purchase ___________? Why is it important for us to invest in _____________?

But what if your marketing team could support business development by addressing many of these questions beforehand? Encourage your marketing team to codify and create responses for the frequently asked questions they receive during the sales process.

5. Where do most of your sales conversations stall?

One of the most valuable ways marketing teams can support sales is to create resources that accelerate the sales process. In most cases, marketing teams have access to writers and designers who can help create tools that your business development team can use during the sales process to address areas in which they might receive pushback.

If you’re struggling to create alignment between your sales and marketing teams, start with these five questions. If anything, these questions will get the conversation started around how both teams can work together to help your marketing professionals better understand the unique challenges and opportunities that exist for your business development team.

4 Marketing Skills Every Business Development Professional Needs

Remember when the only thing that news reporters had to think about was writing a story that would work for the morning paper? Today, reporters need a working knowledge of best practices for creating digital content, leveraging social media, and building their platforms to connect directly with their audience. In the same way, the traditional “sales” role is evolving. For most industries, gone are the days where salespeople simply show up, get a list of prospects, and execute the same sales pitch over and over again. Today’s business development professionals must be more savvy, especially when it comes to understanding marketing. 4 Marketing Skills Every Business Development Professional Needs So what are the marketing skills that are becoming more and more important for business development professionals? Here are four I’m noticing: 1. Writing No matter what you’re selling, you need writing skills to succeed as a salesperson. Email is just one example of how this plays out for many of today’s business development professionals. Clear, concise writing is an invaluable skill to communicate effectively and be understood. 2. Social Media Social media marketing is an important skill to help you find clients or increase your influence in the industry. It’s not something that’s solely a responsibility of marketing anymore. Learning how to use social media to listen to potential customers, build relationships, and add value to your industry has become a critically important skill. 3. Storytelling Marketers have always been great at storytelling. For salespeople, learning how to tell stories can be an incredibly valuable skill. In the book Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath note that 63% of attendees remember stories after a sales presentation. Only 5% remember statistics. 4. Using Analytics Marketing analytics such web behavior data, website engagement, purchase history, etc. is incredibly valuable information for salespeople. Knowing how to draw actionable insights from analytics data to become more attractive to potential employers has become an essential aspect of selling for business development professionals. Taking the time to develop these skills will not only improve your ability to close more deals, it will also make you a more valuable salesperson. What are some other marketing-related skills that have become increasingly important for business development professionals?

How to Align Sales & Marketing to Optimize Your Ability to Grow Your Business

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Sales and marketing groups often work on different sets of projects. While your marketing team might be preparing an ad campaign or coordinating logistics for an upcoming tradeshow sponsorship, your sales team is busy tracking down leads and meeting with potential clients. Although the roles and responsibilities might look drastically different, breaking down the silos between sales and marketing is an essential task for entrepreneurs and business development leaders. According to Marketing Profs, companies that align their sales and marketing practices generate 208% more revenue from marketing efforts. How to Align Your Sales & Marketing Teams As you look for practical ways to begin aligning your sales and marketing teams, here are some valuable tips to keep in mind: 1. Share as much information as possible between teams. Making sure your sales and marketing teams have access to the same information allows them to make strategic decisions together. For example, marketing insights such as email click-thrus and website visitor tracking can be incredibly insightful information for your sales team. Information about where sales conversations stall, or how long it takes for a decision to be made, allows marketing to identify ways to support business development. This isn’t about pointing fingers. It’s about using all the information at your disposal to work together for growing your business. 2. Create buyer personas. Knowing who your ideal customer is, what their pain points are, and how you can uniquely help them is essential for creating an effective buyer’s journey through the sales and marketing process. Your sales and marketing should know (and agree) on exactly who you’re trying to reach. 3. Provide constructive feedback on leads that are generated through marketing. For marketers honing their lead-generation practices, it’s not enough for salespeople to simply label a lead as “bad.” Sales team members should explain why leads are not a fit so that marketers adapt what they’re doing to help produce better-qualified leads. 4. Encourage the sales department to provide stories of customers that can be leveraged for marketing purposes. Stories are a powerful sales and marketing tool. Whether it’s a product pitch or a new campaign, framing information into a narrative form makes it much more memorable and effective. Weaving more stories into your strategy creates a natural convergence of sales and marketing departments because each area should depend on the other for a complete picture. While it might not be a smooth road, continuing to improve alignment between your sales and marketing teams is incredibly valuable. Not only can each team accomplish more when these two teams work together, your business, as a whole, becomes healthier and more profitable.

Is Your Marketing and Sales in Sync? 5 Questions to Ask…

small business people in a meeting


Making sure your marketing and sales team are aligned might be the most profitable decision you make this year. Don’t believe me? According to this report, companies with good sales and marketing alignment achieved 20% annual revenue growth.

Making sure your sales and marketing efforts are in alignment is essential for an entrepreneur or business development professional. But how?

5 Questions to Evaluate Sales & Marketing Alignment

Here are five questions to help you determine if your marketing and sales efforts are truly aligned, or if they’re operating in silos:

1. Are your sales and marketing teams meeting regularly?

If your teams aren’t meeting together on a regular basis, there’s no way they can effectively work together. Setting up regular meetings allows marketers to know how sales is doing with their quota and goals while offering support when needed. It also allows the marketing team to share upcoming campaigns, content, and offers that will be promoted.

2. Are you equipping your sales team with content marketing?

Marketers are constantly promoting new offers and content, so it’s important to keep the sales team up to date with these promotions so that they know what recent offers their leads are receiving. If you’re looking for ideas, here are a few ways to equip your sales team with content marketing.

3. Are you leveraging your marketing channels to position salespeople as thought leaders?

Marketers should understand content and social media better than anyone else in the company. Using that knowledge to showcase your sales team’s expertise is a valuable way for the teams to work together. This could include having your marketing team create content on behalf of your sales team, or marketers could teach the sales team how to leverage social media through training classes.

4. Are you constantly sharing important information with each other?

In the same vein as meeting together regularly, it’s important to create a system that allows your sales and marketing teams to share information. One way to achieve this goal is to create an email alias that gets sent to both sales and marketing. Use this strategically to share important information in both directions.

5. Is your sales team informing the content your marketing team creates?

No one knows the challenges and obstacles of your buyers better than your sales team. They also know the common questions that appear during the sales cycle. Sharing this information with marketing so that they can speak into the pain points of the audience and addresses frequently asked questions before sales conversations goes a long way when it comes to creating content that resonates with people.

While there’s no quick fix, there are certainly a number of foundational principles you can take to promote collaboration between sales and marketing. My hope is that these questions would help you identify some potential ways your company can achieve 20% growth through better marketing and sales alignment.

Marketing Should Support Business Development (and Vice Versa)

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On a scale of 1-10, how aligned are your business development and marketing teams? How often do they connect? What kind of information do they share with each other? Is there any synergy between the timing and effort of the work they’re doing to convert potential customers? These are the questions we like to ask entrepreneurs or business development leaders who ask about how they can improve their marketing efforts. Marketing and Business Development Shouldn’t Operate in Silos Your marketing team exists to be a strategic asset for business development. Everything they do should, in some way, work towards driving more business. Whether it’s through generating leads for business development, supporting business development in the sales cycle, or maintaining the trust and integrity of your brand with current customers, one of marketing’s primary objectives is to support business development. At the same time, your business development team should serve as a strategic asset for marketing. No one knows the challenges and questions your potential customers are facing more than your sales team. That is incredibly valuable information for marketing. It drives the type of content they create and helps them get inside the mind of prospective customers to develop strategies that accelerate the buying cycle. How to Break Down the Silos Between Sales and Marketing So how do you break down the barriers between your sales and marketing teams so that both are strategic assets for the other? Here are a few keys: 1. Make sure both teams are on the same team. When marketing and business development are on different levels of the organizational chart, it can quickly create a hierarchy of who is right and who is to blame. If business development is not above marketing and marketing is not above business development, both teams can feel more confident in having an open conversation. The verbiage becomes less “us vs. them” but rather just “us.” 2. Set up meetings to close the feedback loop. When marketing and business development are operating in silos, they don’t communicate with each other. Sales doesn’t know what marketing is doing. And marketing doesn’t know what’s working on the sales side. It’s easy to get so caught up in your own list of tasks that carving out time to have strategy conversations can be tough. Having ongoing coordination meetings is important to ensure that both teams are on the same page, that objectives are being met, and that both teams know what progress is being made. 3. Create shared accountability. How do you avoid the “blame game” between sales and marketing? Setting the expectation of organizational goals for growth through KPIs that are shared by both teams is a great start. There are several metrics owned by both marketing and business development that can be used to measure progress: length of sales cycle, opportunity-to-win ratio, and lifetime value of a customer. What are some of the biggest barriers you’re facing when it comes to aligning sales and marketing? What’s one step you can take to break down those barriers?