Team Collab

A disconnect between your sales and marketing teams is a sure-fire way to confuse your customer so today James and Jamie sit down to talk about the importance of team collaboration. Building cross-departmental relationships will lead to better brand culture and an improved customer experience.

Kick back and enjoy!

Show Notes

This week on Behind the Madness, James and co talk about teams and how improving collaborations can greatly improve customer satisfaction and experience. Sales and marketing working together help align marketing campaigns, improve products and brand retention by utilising sales teams' customer-facing experiences combined with marketing departments' data and research.

Understanding your customer more to allow you to help them more is what every business strives for, by creating a friendly bridge between departments means you will have the best resources and data in your mission. 

Plug in, sit back and enjoy the episode!

What is Behind The Madness?

A podcast helping companies grow with marketing strategies, automation and time-saving tips and creative solutions.

James: Welcome back.

I'm James, and this is Behind the
Madness where we talk about business

growth, ways to work smarter and the
fundamentals of business, all geared to

unlocking your brand's peak performance,
so let's dive into this episode.

Team collaboration.

Want to start with a joke.

Jamie: Start with a joke why not.

Lighten up people to your personality.

James: So I was um I was lying in bed
one morning and my son came in and

poured a gallon of milk all over me.

Jamie: Strong strong child.

James: Yeah.

I mean, I was, I was angry.

Jamie: Understandable.

James: I mean how dairy.

Jamie: To anyone who's lactose
intolerant, so I'm very sorry.

James: Legend.

Jamie: Dairy.

That is good.

Yeah, that is good.

James: Thanks.

I've got an ant one.

We'll save that for next week.

Right.

Yeah.

yeah.

Jamie: That's unlocking that growth.

James: I can hear them unsubscribing.

Jamie: What's the counter just flick away.

James: So Jamie today, team
collaboration I am joined by Jamie.

If you hadn't gathered already.

We've even improved our podcast gear.

Jamie: Crispy.

James: Much better.

So hopefully it should take Paul a
little bit less in the post-production.

Jamie: But we'll do more.

James: Yeah more episodes, less editing.

Jamie: Yeah, head of podcasts

James: Yes

Jamie: Paul's new role

James: Adding to the rest of the
roles that he's already We are today

talking about team collaboration
still, we're still talking about it.

A lot of teams, obviously
don't talk, they work in silos.

We are going to try and help people
work closer together now, obviously

for us, it makes sense to talk about
teams in terms of sales teams and

marketing teams and working together.

And it's something that we work closely
with, with our clients, and it's something

that we probably know more about.

So there are obviously within
your company, there were a lot

of different organizations that
had a lot of different silos.

And they don't all talk to each
other but specifically today,

we're going to focus down on your
marketing team and your sales team.

So do you want kick us off J?

Jamie: I think sales and marketing
is one of the most important team

collaborations that you can have,
because encapsulates the whole user

journey really the customer journey.

You think you try and grab people's
awareness from being a stranger, and

then you take them all the way through
to conversion and then advocacy of

your product and that is what sales
and that is what marketing does.

So it makes sense that those
two talk to each other.

Because if you get a clear, defined
handoff point where someone has done all

the marketing and they've got ready to
buy, and then a sales guy comes in and

hasn't spoken to the marketing team.

Then there's going to be a disconnect.

There's going to be friction.

And with that, you're going to lose
people, they're going to realize

there's not that personal touch.

There's not that care, and
people care about that nowadays.

It's it's has to be brand connection
and by building out togetherness within

a business, then you build that out
as the customer experience as well.

So that's really, really what you want
to make sure you're doing connect those

two teams, because your marketing efforts
will dictate what you do for selling and

your selling efforts will dictate what
marketing you put out and by working

together, you will become a much more
collaborative unit, aka better customers.

James: Yeah, I completely
agree, what I tend to say is,

think about it on the phones.

If somebody is connecting with you on the
phone and they're giving you one message.

Let's say even if it is the marketing,
that's just gone out, it's all a certain

messages, a certain tone of voice, and
then you've bought into that and the

marketing team have done their job.

And sales step in to pick up the phone
to give you a call, and they're all of

a sudden talking about something else,
completely unrelated or different messages

to what you've already experienced.

It's going to knee-jerk you in, in
down the one wrong route yeah, you want

something that's continually nurturing you
into that final goal, which is obviously

to convert a a prospect into a customer.

Jamie: I think a really nice way you
could probably look at it as an overview

is rather than sales and marketing it's
customer experience and user experience.

And then those two are sections of that
department, because like James says,

if you disrupt that experience then
you're going to lead to more friction.

Potential abandonment potential,
not buying, not conversion

and that's not what you want.

James: I think in smaller companies you
do tend to find that, certainly sales

and marketing, can be the one role.

So a lot of the time they're more aligned
in smaller companies and as we grow,

we separate these teams and they're
not communicating with each other.

Also sales and marketing when we
first talked to a lot of companies

are generally at loggerheads.

The sales are shouting at marketing
for information or leads, and then

the marketing, the shouting at sales
to, you know, give them some feedback

on, on calls if they are at all.

But they're being very much
reactive to what's happening.

Whereas if sales are saying, well, you
know, I'm speaking to people on the

phone all the time about they're wanting
more information on this product or this

product line, then get some resources in
place that can support your sales team.

So when they are speaking to people
on the phone and a customer asks

about a certain feature, you could
have a PDF, a presentation, a

resource that is there ready to go,
could even be a blog or a podcast.

And the sales guy can straight on the
phone go, yeah, absolutely, I'll follow

this up with an email we've got some
great resources on that feature that I'll

whizz over to you digest them in your
own time and I'll, and I'll give you a

call back you know, in a couple of days,
once you've had a chance to read them.

All of a sudden that's marketing and
sales working together to give the

customer what they need on that point.

So talking to sales and understanding
what their pain points are,

rather than just them trying to.

And sales I'm notorious for just
trying to push it through and maybe not

feedback constructively, what they want
or think along those lines, I think is

a really, really good place to start.

Jamie: So James, you're a business
owner, you're a business owner

who has started the business and
has then subsequently grown it.

So you have firsthand seen how sales
can be sales marketing can be one

role, then it can be divvied up.

So obviously before you did a lot
of Methods client facing stuff,

which could be their sales.

Now, obviously we brought Andy
into the team as well, who

is being more client focused.

So, how do you think you found that?

What problems have you encountered
that you can obviously pass on?

kind of a, almost a been there, done that
wisdom, to the business owner this is.

James: I think communication.

So I think bringing them in.

And certainly with the way we
work, we already had a lot of

resources that Andy could pull from.

We had a very good blog with
a lot of information on there.

So we were, I think we were led more
in the terms of the marketing and

the resources that we were, that
we were producing already because

we are very, very customer focused.

So because we were
already customer focused.

Andy has now got a, a huge
collection of resources.

and assets that he can pull from.

Two.

To send to people on, on, on the kind of
the email, but all those touch points.

So I think we were very
lucky in that regard.

If anything, I think he's got too much.

So obviously he's been with
us now for about three months.

And still finding new stuff kind of
all the time to use unto sent over.

Jamie: Do you think that's a problem.

Can can you have too much, as
well as obviously too little.

James: I think we need to find a
way of kind of, obviously before

our blog wasn't even searchable,
which now is a lot, lot easier.

So Andy can now type in a keyword and
actually find what he's looking for.

So with the new website, it
actually makes his job a lot easier.

So while he's on the phone and
people are asking him questions, he

can actually do his research while
he's there and get that out there.

Obviously with our main resources,
we don't have too many of our lead

generators, but as downloads, we've
kind of picked a few and run with those

ones that we know work very, very well.

So, that makes it a lot easier,
but in terms of blogs we have as

you said a huge amount, and I
don't think you can have too much.

I think what he is now doing is realising,
because obviously three months in,

you're still trying to find your feet.

You're still trying to really know a bit
about us and how we work as well as what

people are asking him for on the phone.

And once you've done it for a while, I
think, you almost know the pain points,

you know what objections you're going to
find on the phone because we've all, you

know, we've all had somebody do sales and
we won't phone up anybody out of the blue,

there'll be a reason for them calling.

And then we can generally now
know what blockers are in place.

So when we phoned somebody up, we
almost can pre-empt what they're

going to say before they've said it.

We know what route they're going to
go down, we know the objections that

they're going to try and throw at us.

Once you get to that stage of
understanding what your prospect is going

to say back to you, you can then have
your arsenal ready to say, well, actually,

yeah, no, that's absolutely valid point
here's a blog, here's a resource that

we've actually produced to combat that.

And that's where if we don't have them,
we go back to what we've said originally.

That's where we need to produce it
because if it is a blocker, or a

blocker to sale, then we need to
have some way of combating that.

Jamie: That's a useful point by utilizing
sales who are firsthand, obviously

involved with the clientele, for Method
also for all businesses that feedback from

direct customers then can be relayed to
the marketing team to then produce the

goods or put out social media content
topics on podcasts, blogs written.

How a website looks all of this
stuff that gears the marketing can be

utilized from that direct feedback.

James: Yeah, completely.

And I think you'd go back as well to.

Yeah, I know we're not really talking
about service here we're talking very

much about the sales and marketing,
but it ties into it of being the bigger

the companies get is then all of a
sudden you will have a big sales team.

You'll have a marketing team and
you'll have a, a service team.

And being on the front line we all of a
sudden, like, I used to do everything,

not very well, but I did everything.

I had to do the sales, I
had to do the marketing.

I had to do the work ,I had
to do you know the accounts.

Pretty much everything fell on
me, which is great as a business

owner because then I can understand
how the whole business works.

But then as we grow, you tend
to lose sight of what's actually

happening in those areas.

And we don't have so much interaction
with the customers luckily we're at a size

where we've stayed at the size so we can
all have touch points with the customer,

so we know exactly what's going on.

Everybody within the company, because
we're at that size knows how a

customer feels or, you know, whether
they're having any troubles with

anything or whether it's all rosy.

But as you get bigger, you lose that, and
I think that is something where business

owners need to go back to the frontline
and understand well, what's happening, why

are people feeling like this, because, you
know, as we've always said then you can

refine your product, your offering, but
at the same token, you know, if they're

on the front line of understanding what's
happening in sales they can influence

what their marketing is being produced.

If they're on the front line of
service and getting the feedback

from support tickets or feedback from
sales, they can then go all the way

back and feed marketing again for
you know what we should be saying

or what we should be combating.

Jamie: A nice circular economy

James: Yeah Exactly.

Yeah.

Being, being completely customer
facing now, luckily because of

what we do, we are and we've
started there, as I've said before.

But yeah, you can obviously it's
been a huge learning curve for Andy

to come in and take something which
is very much been me doing all of

it to now somebody taking over.

You know, I've done it for 20 years.

So I understand the business inside
out for somebody to then to come in

and try and pick that up is tough.

And he's not going to have the expertise
in all of the offerings and the services

that we do, whereas I can on the
phone, be very kind of talk through

that person's problems and almost
rectify them if you like straight away.

He hasn't got that expertise so, we need
to provide him with the information to

allow him to give the right content to
those people to solve those problems

without him necessarily being an
expert, and I think that is very hard

to get up to speed very quickly with.

Jamie: So when it comes back to kind
of delving off into the different

roles there, because I think it
is really important to understand

what each department do to have
that empathy to collaborate.

So to kind of wrap up this episode, if
you had five ways that you could throw

out to business owners to help team
build, almost because that's what it

comes down to is, is departments liking
each other, not working in their silos.

What would you say?

Like making sure Christmas parties
happen, making sure there are team

events that not everything is work.

How would you help?

James: So for me, I wouldn't have a
sales team and a marketing team per se.

So obviously it's a little bit harder
now when we got a lot of companies who

are working remotely, but I would make
sure that they are more joined at the hip

and working together for that same goal.

Be that let's say a lead comes through,
rather than just a nice handover of a lead

to sales they kind of work together maybe
on that lead or they're working together.

So they are more joined at the hip.

Jamie: In terms of like
working office space

James: Yeah possible yeah.

Yeah as I said, it might be harder
now being remote but if you're using

tools like Teams or Slack, you know,
maybe have them in the same chat

group, a channel where they can work
together, where they can talk to each

other and have that communication.

I think the lines of
communication are very much as

we know, we'd love automation.

We'd love sending over things to people
and that I think we need to be able

to send that communication rather than
being automated I think it should be

done more manual between the two people
or between the two groups of people.

So there is that communication together.

So yeah, I think good communication
whether that's being in the same office

or the same channels or remotely,

Jamie: So I'm going to speed you up here.

So that's one of five.

James: Yeah.

Jamie: James loves chat, weird that
it's been hard to get on a podcast.

Second second to five go for it.

James: Resources, I think have a good
bank of resources that you can use that

are focusing very much on the customer.

Jamie: Who's creating that.

James: I think marketing needs to be fed
from sales, so, yeah, they need to have

those problems fed to them of what it is.

They will have a good idea., But I
think if we're talking about, you know,

marketing and sales working together
here, I think sales will know what they're

struggling with and what they require.

So this is kind of more of a sales tip,
I would say rather than the marketing

and the sales, but stay off emails.

With an email you're just prolonging
the no, and that's why we kind of do it.

So we all like to be liked and I
prefer salespeople to be people rather

than you know, that the cutthroat
ring, a bell, that all kind of stuff.

I think very much people selling
rather than salesman selling I think

works a lot better and in that regard.

We then fall into the trap of, oh,
we'll just send an email but all

that does is prolong somebody to
say no, because they can say, oh,

sorry, I didn't get back to you.

I'll get back to you next week.

If you pick up the phone to somebody,
they're going to say no, you're

going to get a quicker answer you're
going to waste a lot less time if you

like on that lead or that prospect.

So pick up the phone and speak to people.

Follow it up with an email, sorry I
missed you today I will try you again

in seven days or whatever, but, but
use the phones and speak to people.

Jamie: Three out of five.

Let's get on to that fourth,

James: Fourth so

Jamie: How important in the world of
remote post COVID working situations are

things like summer parties, Christmas dos.

How important is it to bring
that social aspect back?

James: Yeah, I think massively
I think the trouble with, with

obviously a remote working now is.

Obviously here we've, we've always been
very remote, but when the podcast happens,

when we have our content days, we're all
in the office and we waste half a day

talking about football, talking about
everything else, because we don't get our

10 minutes around the water cooler every
day we get that has all of that stored

up for our, yeah one or two days a month
where we do meet up and then we need

that time to bond as a, as a team again.

So, you know, I'm very relaxed
about our content days, being a day

when we really do the content and
half a day, because we need those

touch points together as a group.

And I think that is us as a smaller
organization, but as we grow and as you

meet some bigger companies, they will
have a marketing team party, they'll

have a sales team party, and I think
that just doesn't all that's doing is

just creating those divides and making
it harder for that collaboration.

Whereas dropping down your guards
and having, you know, a night out.

No matter what it is, I think meeting
up as certainly the sales and marketing

and I think that would getting together
and meeting up really, really helps.

Jamie: Fifth and final, are we scraping
the barrel or we got something in there.

James: So fifth and final.

Is a CRM.

We are still talking to people at bigger
organizations who are running their

business off Excel or Google sheets.

Jamie: Uh we know you want to say.

Say say which CRM

James: Having the best
CRM that's out there.

Jamie: He's wearing orange.

I'm going to give that as a hint.

James: Which we believe is HubSpot
it might not fit every company.

90% it will fit, is such
an important thing to have.

As we say, we are very customer focused.

The reason being that we were customer
focused is because we understand that

everything that is going through with
that customer and having that stored

in a CRM is allowing us to do it.

So when we are handing over
somebody from marketing to sales.

we are going to have all of those
touch points that they've had

with us prior to that handover.

So rather than kind of saying, oh, I've
got John, yeah, he lives in London and

he's interested about this product.

We're going to have so much more
information around John, where he's

been, what pages he's been looking at.

Jamie: So watch out john

James: So John we're after you and
that is probably the primary point.

Yeah, have a good CRM that you're all
using rather than having, obviously

you could have different CRMs.

Have one central CRM that
everybody's using and all the

information is stored upon.

Jamie: And there you have it.

That is James's extended five top tips to
collaborate and make teams more cohesive.

Thank you for joining us
again on Behind the Madness.

We are always looking for ideas and
feedback from you guys about what

topics you want us to cover, as you can
see so much shorter, some are longer.

Let us know the comments,
do you prefer quick fire?

We want to make sure we're making the
podcast as accessible and as easy to

digest for business owners, we know
how busy you are, James outro for you.

James: So, yeah, I think as Jamie's
kind of very, very nicely said,

we are building this out, we're
going to get more guests on.

We've got some really
interesting guests lined up.

We want to get more.

If you're interested in jumping
on the podcast, give me a shout.

The best way to get in touch
with me is on my email, which

is [e-mail].

Jamie: In the show notes

James: In the show notes as well.

And I think, that's what we want to do.

We want to kind of talk to business
owners, talk to marketeers, talked to

anybody who has really anything around
kind of business or fundamentals of

business, or struggles or anything
we can kind of talk through on the

podcast that may help other people is
certainly somebody we want to get on.

So yeah, so reach out to me and
we will get you on one of the next

podcasts, as I said, we've got some
really interesting guests lined up.

And as we've kind of said, the
madness here at method never stops.

So we'll be back soon with our next chat.

We've also got, as I said,
a huge load of resources.

We've got 23 episodes of our
podcast now, which we are trying

to get better at, as we've said.

So go have a look through those.

If this is your first time,
welcome, if you've listened to

all of them, then thank you.

If you've listened to all of them.

Jamie: Hi, James's mum.

James: If you've listened to all of
them, like my mum has leave a comment.

The comments really, really do help us.

So if you are enjoying
them, leave a comment.

If you're not enjoying them.

As I said before email Paul.

We will be back stronger.

So until next time, thank
you so much for listening.