As a business owner or decision-maker, the new financial year (FY) is one of the biggest things you need to tackle right now (and strategise for!).

With a new budget and another exciting 12 months ahead of you, it’s important that you unite your teams together to maximise your resources, reach your KPIs and smash your business goals.

I’m here to help you focus on the 6 key elements to do just that.

I get it: just like everyone else, you’re under a lot of pressure to succeed in today’s challenging and ever-evolving business landscape.

You need to continuously innovate while also raising brand awareness and communicating effectively with audiences.

Fortunately, the new financial year is the ideal opportunity to set your business up for success, for good.

You see, as budgets reset, you can recalibrate your marketing and sales strategies, and align them with your business objectives.

But to truly earn excellent results in the new financial year, your marketing and sales teams must work synergistically together.

Because when they do, both marketing and sales can create, capture and convert more demand for your business. 

Only then will you: 

• have the competitive stance you need to make more sales
• increase the bottom line and 
• keep your business at the forefront of the industry.

Remember: while it’s the marketing team that’s often in charge of creating and capturing demand, they must also work hand-in-hand with the sales team to successfully convert this demand into revenue sources for the business.

But how? Simple.

Start by making demand generation a priority for both your marketing and sales teams. 

Simple – yet powerful.

Here’s why.

Unlike lead generation (the default tactic) which relies heavily on the existence of current demand to make a sale, demand generation is all about:

1. capturing interest from new markets 
2. delivering value-adding content collateral, and
3. nurturing relationships with potential customers across all marketing channels.

This demand generation leaves your brand at top of mind for customers, allowing you to:

• establish your business as a thought leader within your industry
• increase brand recognition consistently attract new prospects
• boost your sales pipeline
• improve the quality of leads, and
• shorten the sales cycle to close more deals

Can you see why marketing and sales need to collaborate closely?

With all these benefits, it’s important for your marketing and sales teams to collaborate closely to generate this ongoing demand that will hit that KPI bell.

That’s why I always say that marketing and sales should unite to address customers’ pain points and provide solutions that speak to people’s needs. That’s because they’re performing the same role when it comes to generating healthy customer demand for your business.

Together, they should prioritise demand generation by developing valuable content that effectively engages your target audience and moves them through your business’ sales funnel.  

This all starts when both teams have a shared understanding of goals and metrics. 

That’s why we’ve identified 3 core metrics of demand generation that place marketing and sales on the same page.

These are:

1. Initial Lead Call > Proposal Sent CVR

Simply put, this calculates the percentage of initial lead calls your team conducts that end up converting into a proposal being sent. This metric reflects how well your marketing and sales teams are working harmoniously to attract highly qualified leads.

2. Proposal Sent > Client Won CVR

On the other hand, this metric refers to the number of proposals being sent that successfully have converted into clients. It shows the depth of integration between your sales and marketing teams when it comes to educating leads about the value your business offers.

3. Total Leads > Client Won CVR

Meanwhile, the last metric measures the number of clients that you have won as a percentage of the total leads that have come into your business. It is a great indication of how well your marketing and sales teams are working together across the board.

These demand generation metrics play an important role in giving marketing and sales teams complete clarity as to what they should achieve together in unison.

Now, to foster strong marketing and sales collaboration, you need the right enablement strategies.

Did you know that:

• 80% of content prepared by marketers goes unused by salespeople. 
• 97% of marketers and salespeople also believed there’s often misalignment in the content and messaging they deliver.

This goes to show that a gap exists and that strong marketing and sales enablement is needed to equip both teams with the tools, resources and information they need to support each other effectively.

‍Marketing and sales enablement strategies are essential to have an overarching communication style that will allow your marketing and sales teams to generate leads, close more deals and grow business revenue - this financial year and beyond.

‍So, to help you start the new financial year off right and boost business success, I’ve compiled 6 steps to facilitate marketing and sales enablement.

1. Sit down with your employees and discuss your commercial business goals and objectives. 

This ensures that there’s transparency and that your marketing and sales teams are on board, as well as united towards the same mission and vision.

2. Empower your marketing and sales teams to come up with their strategies for demand generation. 

Encourage them to be creative in planning for the next 12 months, especially on how demand could be generated and ways leads may be converted.

To make things easier, you may also seek the guidance of digital marketing strategy experts like our team at Ask Marketing. We can help your teams come up with a step-by-step strategy blueprint that’s customised for your business.

3. Unite all marketing and sales efforts. 

Backed by a comprehensive digital marketing strategy, you can now determine the people, tools, processes and content required to bridge the gap between marketing and sales. 

4. Don’t stop upskilling and reskilling. 

To enable marketing and sales teams to be consistently successful in their roles, you must provide opportunities for training and coaching. 

5. Make sure your marketing and sales strategies are also aligned with your budget.

The new financial year comes with new budgets. With this, you can allocate your financial resources toward marketing and sales strategies that will drive the most results for your business.

At Ask Marketing, we can take care of all your digital marketing needs, help you get the most out of your marketing budget and save you hours of time and energy so that you can focus on growing both your business and revenue.

6. Measure results and adjust as necessary.

How will you know if your marketing and sales teams are working effectively together? The metrics!

Use the 3 core metrics that we identified above to measure the efficacy of your demand pipeline, as well as understand which areas need more improvement so that your marketing and sales can work more synergistically and drive more positive results for the business.

Don’t forget, though, to coordinate with both teams on how frequently you’re going to measure to help them prepare the data needed.

So, do you need more help when it comes to marketing and sales enablement?

As we always say, all you have to do is ASK! 

At Ask Digital Marketing, we can bring your marketing and sales team together as a united function so that they can create more demand, capture more leads and drive more valuable conversions for the business.

We also combine decisive digital marketing strategy and managed marketing execution to help B2B service-based businesses like yours establish thought leadership and own their industry through digital business marketing.  

Stop waiting. Start building. Experience success. 

Just get in touch with us and we can discuss the ways we can guide you in navigating the digital marketing landscape. 

Together, let’s solidify your marketing plan and achieve your business goals – beginning this new financial year.

For more great marketing content, connect with our company leaders, Alexandra King and Stephanie King, or follow our Ask Marketing LinkedIn page. 

Let’s harness the power of digital marketing today!