Should You Let Your Growth Marketing Agency Talk to Sales?

Should marketing and sales team be mortal enemies or BFFs? 

We vote BFFs, and we’re not the only ones! 

In fact, marketing and sales alignment has been a major crusade in the last few years. Business leaders are realizing that an integral part in driving revenue and scaling a business is fostering clear communication and transparency between marketing and sales. Call it whatever you want: de-siloing, de-vacuuming: it all means the same things. It’s time for marketing and sales to team up. 

But while this interdepartmental synergy might be becoming clearer to many, things look a little different when it comes to hiring a growth marketing agency. A growth marketing agency does marketing, of course, yet are not always given the opportunity to talk to sales, even in the era of marketing and sales alignment! 

Keep reading to get the answer to the question everyone’s been asking: should you let your growth marketing agency talk to your sales team? 

A Brief Recap: What is a Growth Marketing Agency? 

You’re likely familiar with growth marketing agencies. (If you’re not, check out The Ultimate Guide to Working with a Growth Marketing Agency (Without Going Broke) for everything you need to know.) 

To put it simply, a growth marketing agency is a marketing agency that focuses mainly on driving more business and revenue for its clients to promote long-term growth. 

Oftentimes, business leaders will hire an external marketing agency because they don’t have the internal resources (or enough internal resources) to run campaigns and generate leads. 

The Relationship Between Your Marketing Agency and Sales Team 

Your growth marketing agency is a partner. That’s why you hired them. 

For all intents and purposes, an external marketing agency should be treated similarly to an internal marketing department: they should have access to the same information, data, and resources, and that includes sales.  

Your agency should have at least one initial meeting with sales when they’re first hired to get a comprehensive understanding of the sales process and what salespeople need to convert leads into customers. Even if they can’t have frequent meetings, sales and marketing should have the freedom to contact each other (via email or however is most convenient) so they can consistently be on the same page and work in harmony. 

It’s also crucial that both teams are aligned on company missions, goals, and strategies, all of which should be clearly defined by the CEO or at the C-suite level, then trickled down into internal and external partners. The better those things are defined, the more effective campaigns will be. 

The Power of Sales Data 

Giving your marketing agency access to historical and current sales data will also do wonders for them. With sales data and analysis, marketing can make smarter decisions about how, when and where to advertise or market a product or service.  

This data can also be used to improve the sales approach. If there are specific areas where customers struggle with understanding what they want out of their relationship with you (or just aren’t sure whether they need what you offer), then this is an area where targeted marketing education could help them decide how best to proceed forward--and set them up for success down the road! 

Conclusion  

Sales teams and marketing agencies are both trying to accomplish the same goal: generate more qualified leads that turn into paying customers. The problem is that they often have different definitions of what a "qualified lead" is. What's more, they're focused on very different metrics—sales wants quantity while marketing wants quality. 

If you can align these two teams around the same set of metrics (like conversion rates), you'll find an increased focus on delivering real value to customers at each stage of the buying process. And this means happier customers who stick around for longer periods of time. 

If you’re wondering whether or not your growth marketing agency should be talking with sales, then ask yourself this question: “Do I want my growth initiatives hitting their marks better?” If so, then you have your answer. 

Want to Know More? 

Ready to partner with growth marketing and demand generation agency that works in harmony with the rest of your team? Get in touch today!