This morning I read a request for people to comment on whether smarketing was a good idea. Without naming any names, here’s what it said:
The “smarketing” trend involves integrating sales and marketing efforts. Is this a good idea for small businesses? How can they move toward a “smarketing” strategy?
I won’t lie. This one made me laugh out loud and roll me eyes all at once.
Before I tell you why, let’s fully understand what we’re talking about.
Smarketing: A definition
Smarketing is the process of integrating the sales and marketing processes of a business. The objective is for the sales and marketing functions to have a common integrated approach. This can lead to annual revenue growth of up to 20%, according to a study in 2010.
The objective is to promote the product or service to potential buyers and at the same time integrate this process with the sales department’s activities. Sales and marketing departments should meet frequently and agree on a common terminology, and using data throughout the entire sales and marketing process to identify good prospects and to follow up on how well they are followed up.
*Thanks to Wikipedia for the definition.
Smarketing: Well, duh
So here’s why this made me laugh: marketing is a sales-support function. If the marketing and sales departments are not working together than trouble is brewing.
Now as a marketer who has turned my nose up at the sales positions I’ve been offered, I’ll absolutely say that sales and marketing are two different functions. But as a marketer, sales people are my best friends and I want to hear from them as much as possible.
There absolutely needs to be a feedback loop between the people that are in contact with the clients (sales) and the people developing the messaging and materials that facilitate sales (marketing). If that’s out of sync than the chance of creating successful campaigns drop significantly.
And at the risk of sounding terribly snarky, anyone who even questions this doesn’t know much about business as a whole, much less marketing.
Smarketing in a small business
My guess is the term smarketing came from a large corporation where divisions are notoriously siloed, but there really shouldn’t be a need to even have a discussion about smarketing for most small businesses.
Here’s why: the vast majority of small businesses operate with small teams. There is no question about whether it’s a good idea to approach sales and marketing together, because it’s already happening.
In many cases small business owners may not have even stopped to separate out the
wo functions, they simply process feedback from the clients and adjust their sales strategy accordingly.
So to answer the original query, should small business owners be smarketers? Absolutely, but if you have to put a label on it, I’d rather it stand for smart marketers.
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