It’s no secret that sales and marketing teams often don’t play well together. Despite all of the seminars, training sessions and white papers expounding the benefits of cooperation, the well-established silos of these two groups often prevent them from collaborating to improve their company’s sales results. It would be easy to lay all the blame on differences in culture, negative stereotypes, and different performance metrics. No doubt those do play a role in the problem. But fundamentally, there is a single, underlying explanation for why these functions fail to get along: a lack of buy-in. Far too often, the in-the-trenches sales staff simply does not support the marketing team’s grandiose initiatives. The result: marketing efforts and sales efforts that don’t work together, salespeople that are angry because the marketing team doesn’t “get it,” and marketers who are frustrated because the salespeople won’t “get on board.”

So, what exactly is “buy-in,” and how can the marketing team work with the sales team to ensure it? Simply put, buy-in is the belief on the part of the sales team that a marketing initiative is appropriate and has merit. That is to say the sales team genuinely believes that the marketing program is a good idea. To earn this buy-in, the marketing team needs to do several things.

Bring Them in Early

Bring the sales staff into the process as early as possible, before details of the new initiative have even been finalized. You simply can’t create a marketing strategy in a vacuum and hope to obtain buy-in from the sales team after the fact. At the end of the day, they’re the ones who have to execute. So get their input before you spend too much time creating a plan that’s going nowhere. For example, consider creating a sales advisory board, and get their ideas before coming up with major programs. Or, if that’s one bridge too far, before finalizing certain initiatives, you should at least informally discuss strategies with the sales group and invite their input. Not only will this show the sales team that marketing cares about their opinion, it can help to create programs based in the reality of how sales happen.

Respond to Reality

It is absolutely critical for marketers consider the reality of life in the field. The sales team is on the ground every day. Don’t dismiss their concerns just because they don’t appear in your marketing plan. There are lots of ways to listen to your sales staff; for example, you could host weekly meetings for the first several weeks (or months) following the rollout of a new initiative. Just as importantly, you need to provide tangible evidence you are listening to the sales force. What good does it do you to take input if nothing changes as a result? Nothing will destroy your credibility with the sales team faster than ignoring their ideas. You don’t have to do everything they say, but you do have to demonstrate that their ideas matter.

Show Them Your Cards


Marketers know all the tricks of marketing, and salespeople know all the tricks of selling. When you go to present the new initiative to the sales team, don’t try to sell them on it. They’ll see right through your pitch. Instead, have an intelligent conversation as to why this is the best method. Present it objectively, with facts and figures, not over-the-top marketing speak (you know what I’m talking about). Instead, provide a realistic assessment of what the new strategy can (and cannot) do. Discuss how well the program will do in the field and what the challenges will be. If they think you’re just blowing smoke, you can kiss their support good-bye.

Position Them for Success


Ultimately, salespeople need tools to help them break through the clutter and differentiate the company & products they’re selling. Salespeople are busy meeting with their customers; they look at marketing to provide them with those tools. Sales needs things to help them convince their customers your company has the best products or is the right service provider. This means creating sales materials to not only communicate the specs, facts and features, but translate them into benefits, showing (not telling) potential customers how a product or service meets their specific needs. Successful marketing materials will explain, in no uncertain terms, how the product or service will relieve the emotional pain the prospect is currently feeling. If the marketing team can provide sales with these kinds of tools — tools to help them convert prospects into customers — they’ll have won the sales team’s respect, and with it, a whole lot of buy-in.

--Brock Ray

Image by Peter Kaminski and used under the Creative Commons license.