Bridging the Gap: How Sales and Marketing Teams Can Work Together for Success

In this episode of the Smarter Building Materials Marketing podcast, hosts Zach Williams and Beth PopNikolov are joined by Will Hall, the Managing Director of Fahrenheit Advisors, along with Steve Coffey, Venveo’s Vice President of Business Growth and Development.
 

They dive into the importance of sales and marketing alignment in the building materials and manufacturing industry, along with how to leverage digital marketing to enhance a company's online presence and streamline the customer journey.

02:33 - Digital marketing is crucial for all companies.

06:54 - Frustrating experience highlights the gap between marketing and sales.

10:31 - Poor funnel handling affects marketing ROI.

16:18 - Fahrenheit helps with strategy and implementation.

19:03 - Leverage digital marketing or risk sales.
 

Will Hall is a managing director at Fahrenheit Advisors, specializing in sales advisory. With a background in building materials and the construction world, Will has spent over 20 years in the building product manufacturing industry.

His experience includes international business development, key account management in big-box retail, building and leading teams and heading marketing efforts. At Fahrenheit Advisors, a management consulting company offering various disciplines, Will contributes his expertise in the sales advisory arena.

The Changing Landscape of Sales and Marketing in the Building Product Space

Will highlights the evolving nature of sales in the building materials industry. With more and more potential customers relying heavily on digital platforms for research and decision-making, the more crucial digital marketing becomes for sales.

Mid-sized companies in the building materials industry are recognizing the significant shift in marketing as branding. Will emphasizes that having a strong digital marketing presence is no longer a luxury but a necessity.
 

In this day and age of digital marketing, of people at the very least vetting you, you have to lean into digital marketing. You have to make sure that your presence online is one that's true to you and your company at the very least.” - Will Hall

As Zach and Beth highlight, potential customers often conduct online research before making purchasing decisions — this can either make or break a company's reputation. The key is to ensure that an organization's digital presence reflects its brand image, mission and values to build credibility.

Even if the digital marketing efforts don’t generate leads immediately, Will still emphasizes the importance of shaping customer perception. 

Sales and Marketing Collaboration For Customer Experience

Steve Coffey shares his recent experience with a DIY deck renovation. Although he was able to find products online for his project, he had difficulty locating them to make a purchase. The marketing got in front of him when he was searching for solutions, but there was a gap in sales when he wanted to buy them.

Will notes that successful companies have recognized the need to integrate marketing efforts with the sales process to effectively guide potential customers through their buying journey. 

If they can get on the same page, and they're working towards the same metrics and trying to work towards the same KPIs that are joined, that's where you can hopefully avoid a lot of these issues.” - Will Hall

By aligning marketing strategies with the sales team's objectives and encouraging knowledge sharing, these teams can create a seamless customer experience and maximize sales opportunities.

Properly Using Data To Enhance Sales and Marketing

Zach mentions that he sees a lot of marketing departments measuring the wrong things. Instead of measuring what needs to change for better results, the departments are measuring what makes them feel good or aren’t digging deeper into the data in front of them.
 

When it comes to data and building a process of sale, Will mentions Fahrenheit’s Sales Advisory Group’s process. This includes fractional sales management to market strategy and building a sales model.
 

Start by assessing the business, ensuring the company understands its value propositions and understanding why people buy its products — once those are established, you can begin to build a process of sale and, at that point, the sales funnel.

You start with a lead — whether it be cold, warm, inbound, outbound, whatever the case might be — and then you build different gates and work on your conversion rates over time. And you incorporate that and do that with marketing." - Will Hall

Steve talks about how many companies can build out a sales funnel but don’t nurture the conversations after a conversion. The companies that he sees succeeding are those that are crafting the funnel and nurturing leads entirely through that journey — they aren’t making it difficult to buy a product.
 

Beth adds the importance of conversion rate optimization. Instead of just looking at the results and settling for whatever you achieved, look to where the process can be improved. If you went back, reviewed and optimized, you could see places where you could do better and potentially increase your end-rate conversions. If you move on too quickly, you miss the chance to find out how to create truly meaningful work in marketing.

Get in Touch with Will

If you want to get in touch with Will, the best way to connect is through his LinkedIn.

The Smarter Building Materials Marketing podcast helps sales and marketing professionals find better ways to grow leads, sales and outperform the competition. It gives insights, examples and shares stories about how to create a results-driven digital marketing strategy for building products and construction companies of any size. SBMM is co-hosted by Venveo’s Founder, Zach Williams and Venveo’s CEO, Beth PopNikolov.