ON THE SAME PAGE: ALIGNING PEO SALES AND MARKETING TEAMS

In the competitive landscape of PEO sales, the alignment of marketing and sales initiatives is an incredible strategic advantage. This alignment is even more crucial when targeting small business owners, who often have limited resources and high expectations.

Our economy is built on small businesses which make major contributions to innovation and employment creation, but running these businesses is difficult and incredibly isolating at times. These organizations operate in a highly competitive and volatile setting where every choice has a significant impact on success or failure.

For these individuals, working with a PEO is about creating enduring partnerships that promote growth and sustainability rather than merely short-term fixes for problems. Sales and marketing teams have the difficult challenge of overcoming objections and sharing the compelling story of how PEOs can help grow small businesses.

UNDERSTANDING EACH DISTINCT ROLE

Marketing serves as the bridge between PEOs and small business owners. It’s not just about promoting PEO services; it’s about educating small business leaders and crafting compelling stories that resonate with their needs and aspirations. Effective marketing targeted at small businesses involves several components:

• Targeted Messaging: Understanding small businesses’ unique challenges and goals allows marketers to tailor their messaging to address specific pain points and offer relevant solutions.
• Educational Content: Small business owners often seek guidance and insights to navigate complex issues. Providing valuable content through blogs, webinars, and downloadable resources establishes credibility and positions the PEO as a trusted advisor.
• Brand and PEO Awareness: Marketing efforts focus on increasing industry and brand awareness through traditional marketing, social media, and industry events.
• Lead Generation: Generating high-quality leads is essential for sustained growth. Marketing strategies should incorporate lead-generation tactics such as email campaigns, SEO optimization, and targeted advertising to attract potential clients.

While marketing lays the groundwork, the sales function converts leads into loyal clients. For PEOs targeting small businesses, sales teams play a pivotal role in several ways:

• Building Relationships: Small business owners value personal connections and trust when engaging with service providers. Sales representatives act as ambassadors, nurturing relationships through personalized interactions and understanding the client’s unique needs.
• Consultative Selling: Unlike transactional sales, selling PEO solutions requires a consultative approach. Sales professionals must demonstrate expertise, listen attentively to client concerns, and propose tailored solutions that add value.
• Overcoming Objections: Small business owners often have reservations about investing in PEO due to a lack of knowledge, budget constraints, or perceived risks. Sales teams must address these objections proactively, highlighting the long-term benefits and ROI of partnering with the PEO.
• Closing Deals: Closing deals in the PEO space requires finesse and persistence. Sales professionals are skilled at communicating the value proposition and setting appropriate expectations to secure mutually beneficial agreements.

WHY ALIGNMENT MATTERS

While marketing and sales serve distinct functions, their objectives are essentially the same: to attract, engage, and retain clients. When these functions operate in silos, it can lead to inefficiencies, missed opportunities, and, ultimately, poor client experience. Here’s why alignment is crucial:

• Consistent Messaging: When the marketing and sales teams are aligned, they deliver a consistent message across all touch points, reinforcing the PEO’s value proposition and enhancing brand perception.
• Seamless Customer Journey: A seamless customer journey, from initial contact to post-sales support, is essential for small business owners. Alignment ensures that transitions between marketing and sales are smooth, fostering trust and confidence in the PEO.
• Data-driven Insights: By sharing data and insights learned from customers, marketing and sales teams gain a more complete understanding of client behavior and preferences. This allows the PEO to refine strategies, optimize campaigns, and identify new growth opportunities.
• Accountability and Collaboration: Alignment fosters a culture of accountability and collaboration, where both teams are mutually invested in achieving common goals. This leads to better coordination, shared successes, and a stronger sense of collective achievement.

BEST PRACTICES

Achieving alignment between marketing and sales requires a concerted effort and a commitment to collaboration. Here are some best practices:

• Mutual Respect Between Leaders: Leaders of these two teams must set a good example for the rest of the employees. The marketing and sales leaders must demonstrate mutual respect for one another as leaders and for each department’s contribution toward closed deals. When one team undermines the other, especially from a leadership perspective, this can lead to mistrust.
• Shared Goals and KPIs: Establish shared goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) that reflect both marketing and sales objectives. This ensures that both teams are working towards common outcomes and reinforces a sense of shared responsibility. Some examples are:
  • Revenue
  • Target number of new worksite employees
  • Target number of new clients
• Regularly Scheduled Meetings: Schedule regular meetings or check-ins with the marketing and sales teams to align objectives, discuss campaign performance, and share insights from client interactions.
  • How often? I recommend that the marketing and sales leaders meet weekly or bi-weekly and then the combined teams meet at least monthly to touch base on current initiatives and challenges. It can also be helpful to hold quarterly brainstorming sessions where sales and marketing can share their ideas for the other department.
  • Have an agenda. The Marketing and sales teams are busy. Time spent in meetings is time not spent selling. No matter how often you meet, ensure you have a clear agenda to make the best use of everyone’s time.
• Opportunities for Training and Development: Provide ongoing training and development opportunities for both marketing and sales teams to enhance their skills and understanding of each other’s roles.
  • Job shadowing. Marketing can learn about the sales process and buyers by listening to recorded sales calls or joining in sales meetings. This can help develop ideas for sales enablement resources and public-facing content.
  • Sharing best practices. Marketing should share best practices for social media and email outreach with the sales team. Marketing teams are skilled at crafting compelling messages. Sharing these ideas with the sales team can help them be more effective in their prospecting and sales efforts.

For PEOs targeting small business owners, marketing and sales alignment is critical as it ensures a cohesive and compelling buyer experience from initial engagement to long-term partnership. By embracing collaboration, communication, and shared objectives, PEOs can unlock new opportunities, drive growth, and become indispensable partners to the small business community.