Aligning sales and marketing for eCommerce success

Sales and marketing alignment to amplify eCommerce success

The eCommerce sector has evolved rapidly over the past decade. Advances in technology and an increasingly competitive post-pandemic market mean that consumers today have unprecedented control over their buying experience.

With instant access to information about brands, consumers can shop from any location or device that’s convenient for them. They can also share their experiences with a wider audience, and seek out the experiences of other shoppers during their browsing or researching.

Today’s consumer is also more discerning about what businesses they shop with. If there is any disconnect between their customer experience and your brand’s image and values, they can be put off by the lack of authenticity and turn to a competitor.

If you want consistency throughout customer experience and cohesion with your brand image, your sales and marketing teams must be on the same page. 

Aligning your sales and marketing teams for eCommerce success

Historically, sales and marketing departments have reported on different metrics and KPIs, often to different executives within their organisations. According to research by Linkedin, 96% of sales and marketing professionals admit there are challenges for alignment in these areas.

However, businesses are increasingly finding that when sales and marketing are aligned, it leads to an increase in growth and revenue. A 2023 survey found that businesses with closely aligned sales and marketing teams saw an average of 19% faster revenue growth, 15% more profitability and 36% more customer retention.

In this blog post, we’ll take a deep dive into four key areas where sales and marketing should focus their alignment efforts:

Buyer personas for sales and marketing

Sales and marketing teams both collect valuable data that, when combined, paints a clearer picture of who your customers are. Buyer personas bring this data to life using characters that represent each segment of your customer base.

These personas are generally formed using a combination of data and customer feedback from interviews or surveys. The more information you have, the easier it will be to map out personas and identify real-life buyers who fit them.

Questions to consider are:

• Who are you selling to?
• What do they care about?
• What pain points or challenges do they face in their everyday life?
• How will your product assist with these problems?

The real-world interactions your sales reps have with customers hold much of the answers to these questions. Meanwhile, there may be questions or issues raised by customers that they can’t see, interpret or resolve alone.

When combined with marketing data collected from eCommerce and analytics platforms, sales and marketing teams can build personas together that accurately reflect your key customers.

Building stronger links between sales and marketing teams also gives your sales managers an opportunity to flag any recurring questions and feedback, which marketing can then use to guide their content strategy.

Not only will this equip your sales team with the resources they need to sell your products more effectively, but it will also help to increase trust in your brand by demonstrating your willingness to listen and respond to concerns.

Identifying commercial opportunities

By working together, you can identify key segments of the market that are most likely to respond favourably to your brand, so you can target both your sales and marketing efforts more effectively. 

As your business grows and evolves, so will your buyer personas. Having your sales and marketing team closely aligned means that content marketers can tailor their content to reflect any shifts in buyer behaviour or changing customer demographics.

In turn, this improved content will build trust and continue to impact positively on reach and conversions.

Goal setting that keeps sales and marketing moving in the same direction

Both sales and marketing teams play a role in increasing conversions. The role of your marketing team is to reach as many potential customers as possible. Expanding your business’s reach will generate more sales leads and conversions.

Recent studies have found that for most businesses, only 10-15% of sales leads convert. If your sales and marketing teams aren’t effectively aligned, it makes it harder to identify and nurture sales leads.

However, as your business grows, you may find aligning sales and marketing for eCommerce success more challenging. In order for sales and marketing teams to work together effectively, they need aligned goals, even if they have slightly different KPIs.

Sales teams may have revenue-based targets, whereas marketing teams may use website traffic or online engagement as key metrics for their success. Metrics such as conversions and lead value are relevant to both sales and marketing goals, so identifying common KPIs is a good strategy for tightening alignment between these teams.

Equipping your sales team with the resources they need to succeed

Broadly speaking, sales enablement is the process of equipping your business’s sales team with the resources they need to sell your products effectively.

As the ‘faces’ representing your brand on the ground, your sales team plays a key role in creating a positive experience, sometimes giving shoppers the very first impression of your brand. Sales reps that appear confident and knowledgeable play a large part in building trust and maintaining brand loyalty. 

When it comes to sales enablement in eCommerce, this generally involves deeply educating sales staff on your product line, website content and functionality, and digital resources. The latter could include web content like written guide, online tools or interactive features like product quizzes, customer reviews or case studies, and knowledge hubs.

When creating your business’s sales enablement strategy, consider the specific needs of your sales team:

• How effective are they?
• What resources do they currently have available to them?
• Where are the knowledge gaps?
• What resources would help fill these gaps?

According to recent industry figures, over 40% of sales reps don’t feel like they have the information they need to pitch effectively to potential buyers. This means that organisations with solid sales enablement strategies have a clear edge in an increasingly competitive eCommerce market.

Your sales team will benefit if you commit to: 

1. Maintaining a centralised CRM that all reps can use to track and nurture leads while also allowing for easy reporting
2. Gathering data on the practices of high-performing reps so they can be drawn upon by others
3. Consulting frequently across teams to ensure the resources available are still relevant and accurate

Aligning sales and marketing for eCommerce success

Sales and marketing teams that align their efforts contribute to a more seamless and unified customer journey, from their first interaction with your brand to the final sale. 

Whether your customer makes a purchase through a sales rep or through the website, this is a valuable sale in more ways than one. Beyond a conversion, each sale offers insights that strengthen your marketing strategies.

You must consider the role that sales staff play in the customer experience, and harness their feedback to create an online experience that’s consistent with changing customer expectations.

How sales teams and technology can work together

The growth of eCommerce means that customers can research products and complete purchases without going through a sales rep. However, a website is not a replacement for sales staff – instead, it complements their efforts by providing a wealth of in-depth product information that a customer can browse at their own pace. 

Tools like chatbots that are equipped to handle general enquiries also help free up time for your sales team. This enables them to focus their time tailoring sales pitches and handling more complex enquiries from potential leads.

Educating sales teams about your website, its content, functionalities and checkout process can be a powerful technique. Not only does it provide them with a secure, convenient payment platform to present to customers, it also allows them to browse your entire range and offer them options they may not have previously considered.

At the same time, feedback from sales staff can help marketing and web teams tailor your eCommerce site to address customers’ needs. Frequently asked questions, popular products or services and post-sale feedback can all help content marketers guide their efforts. This could look like designing campaigns and promotional material based on popular items and seasonal trends or incorporating new functionalities to meet changing consumer expectations.

Using data to nurture sales leads and customers

Harnessing marketing data also means sales reps can gain a deeper insight into customer needs and preferences – eCommerce platforms capture every aspect of the customer journey. 

Even if a customer doesn’t make a purchase on their first visit, their online behaviour will contain clues as to their level of interest in your brand. Analytics data can include the pages they browse and journeys they take, the time spent on each page, the products they save to lists, pages with bounce rates showing friction and drop-off points, and personal information they’ve consented to share. 

Customers who express an interest in your brand by creating an account or signing up for your newsletter are all strong potential sales leads. Having visibility over this data allows your combined sales and marketing efforts to be more effective, monitor the real-time progress of deals, and nurture these leads until they convert into customers (and beyond).

Aligning your sales and marketing team’s efforts is a key component to ensure the success of your eCommerce business. An effective alignment strategy will help your sales and marketing teams to: 

• Build and maintain accurate buyer personas
• Work together to achieve shared goals 
• Facilitate sales enablement
• Create a unified eCommerce journey across multiple sales channels