How to Align Sales & Marketing in Just 30 Minutes a Week


Let’s face it: Aligning your sales and marketing teams isn’t easy. For many businesses, there are big obstacles to overcome—from breaking down the silos between the two departments to getting everyone to agree on the ideal customer for your business.

While business leaders understand the importance of marketing and sales alignment, most businesses can’t stop everything they’re doing to make sure marketing and sales are on the same page. Leaders are left asking, “How do we improve marketing and sales alignment as we go?”

How to Align Marketing & Sales in Just 30 Minutes a Week

One solution I often recommend is to establish a weekly 30-minute standing meeting between key stakeholders. These stand-up meetings don’t have to be complicated. In fact, each meeting agenda can be built by addressing three simple questions:

  • What progress have we made since the last meeting?
    • What insights can sales team members provide that are valuable for the marketing team?
    • What is the marketing team working on that would be helpful for sales team members to know?
  • What is the plan going forward?
    • Are you gaining traction on sales conversations? What can the marketing team do to support those conversations?
    • What parts of your strategy need to be tweaked? What new ideas should you consider implementing?
  • Blockages
    • What information do you need from the other team to do your job well?
    • Where are you getting stuck? What potential problems do you see?

The biggest piece of advice I can give is to spend time focusing on what matters the most for your business. If you have a major event coming up, you could focus the stand-up meeting on how you’ll set up meetings at the show. It’s OK to be flexible on the topics covered, as long as everyone has a clear sense of next steps.

Sales and marketing stand-up meetings are one of the most important things a company can do to create alignment and foster face-to-face collaboration between the two teams. Don’t let it become a simple review of the existing marketing programs and schedule. Instead, use the time to collaborate and problem-solve together.

3 Marketing Metrics Every CEO Should Know By Heart

As a CEO or business leader, you’re responsible for a lot. Leading your company and making sure everyone is set up for success requires a working knowledge of each area of your business. Because of this, it’s essential that you focus on the metrics and key performance indicators that are truly driving your business forward. While there are hundreds of metrics that impact your company’s marketing performance, your primary concern should be ones that directly impact the bottom line. 3 Marketing Metrics Every CEO Should Know By Heart If you want to keep a pulse on how your company is really doing when it comes to marketing, here are three metrics to keep top of mind:
  1. The Number of Customers Influenced or Generated by Marketing. Identifying the number of new customers that were either directly generated through marketing or influenced by your marketing activity gives you a high-level overview of your marketing effectiveness. Calculating the number of marketing-generated customers can be done by simply dividing your total number of new customers by the number of marketing-generated leads. Calculating influenced customers is a little more tricky, but it can be estimated by identifying all your new customers divided by the percentage of customers who had interaction with marketing material or activities during the sales cycle.
  2. Conversion Rate Through the Marketing and Sales Funnel. Being able to identify the conversion rate from an impression to a lead, a lead to a sales opportunity, and a sales opportunity to a customer is critical. Not only does it help you effectively evaluate your new business pipeline, but, more importantly, it helps you identify the strengths and weaknesses in the customer journey so that you can constantly make strategic improvements.
  3. The Cost to Acquire a New Customer. Defining how much you spend to bring in a new customer is critical to measuring ROI and is a question that’s important to your board and stakeholders. By adding up all costs (both marketing and sales) and dividing it by the total number of new customers for the same period, you’re able to get a rough idea of how much it costs to acquire a new customer. If possible, breaking it down by specific activities (conferences, inbound marketing, advertising, etc.) is even better.
If you’re looking for a way to evaluate your marketing efforts, these metrics will give you a good start toward proving marketing ROI to your board or stakeholders.

7 Creative Ways to Thank Your Clients and Customers

thank-you-card-on-table-with-latte
Thanksgiving is a time we all stop and reflect on the things we’re grateful for. More than likely, your clients or customers are somewhere on that list (if they’re not, they should be—they’re the reason you’re in business). But, do your customers know just how much you appreciate their business? According to a small business study, 68% of customers leave cease doing business with a company because they feel that company is indifferent to them. As we spend time this week thinking and celebrating what we’re thankful for, here are seven creative ways you can say “thank you” to the clients and customers who are keeping your company in business:

1. Create a Loyalty Program or “VIP Membership” for your best customers.

This is something Robbie Baxter unpacks in her book, Membership Economy. Your rewards program doesn’t have to be complex. It can be as simple as offering customers an annual discount on their anniversary.

2. Make a donation to a cause you know your customers care about.

Reach out to a select set of valued customers and let them know you’d like to make a contribution in their honor to their favorite charity.

3. Listen to the suggestions customers provide and actually implement them.

There is no better way to communicate with a customer than to show them you were listening. Your customers are a great source of areas you can improve as a business. Reach out to customers and tell them how you’ve implemented their suggestions.

4. Give your loyal customers a discount or special promotional price, just because.

Sending a note telling a customer you’ve taken $50 off their December bill as a way of showing appreciation for their loyal and continued service is a great way to keep their business in the future.

5. Send customers your favorite business book that you know they’ll enjoy.

This is a great idea for B2B companies. This gesture offers customers insight into your company culture and opens the lines of communication for future discussion about the ideas that you use to help shape your products, services, or strategies.

6. Help teach customers something valuable that’s related to your industry or area of expertise.

Two huge benefits come from thanking customers this way — customers trust you, and they have a greater appreciation for your products. It’s the ultimate win-win.

7. Refer people you know to your customers’ businesses.

B2B businesses should make every effort to say thanks by sending business to their customers. Look for opportunities to refer your customers to other clients or link them to your network.  I’d love to know what some other creative ways you’ve let customers know how thankful you are in the past! As always, don’t hesitate to contact Green Apple today if you need some marketing guidance or assistance to go the extra mile for your clients and customers.