How To Define Sales And Marketing Objectives Quickly And Easily

Sales And Marketing Objectives: Increase turnover, increase the number of clients, and expand the portfolio of products and services… These are some of the most common sales and marketing objectives but they present a main problem: they are not very specific and, in most cases, unrealistic..

If you haven’t heard of SMART goals yet, it is a method that responds to a 5-word acronym:

Specific 

 Measurable

 Achievable

 Relevant

Time -bound

With these concepts in mind, it will be much faster and easier to draw up real and feasible sales and marketing objectives for the sales and marketing team.

Sales And Marketing Objectives: What Types Exist?

Before setting the objectives of both departments, it is very important that they are aligned.   Uniting the marketing and sales teams in defining objectives will be a decision that will allow you to achieve in a more optimal way that qualified leads become future clients.

Types of sales goals

A company’s sales objectives are always intended to increase sales in a certain period of time. However, this can be achieved in different ways: multiply the number of customers, increase sales of a certain product, retain existing customers, etc.

In this sense, it will be very important to know the different types of sales objectives that exist and which of them we are going to include in our strategic plan.

• Volume objectives: these are those aimed at selling the maximum amount of products possible, for which margin reduction is usually chosen. This is very common in large consumer companies.
• Profitability objectives: if the aim is to increase profit margins, we will focus on these types of objectives. One technique in this case is to stop marketing products that provide little benefit to focus on promoting those that generate most of the company’s turnover.
• Market share objectives: when working in markets that are already very mature, this is usually one of the main objectives, since the aim is to increase the percentage of market penetration by taking it away from the competition.
• Loyalty objectives: these are intended to strengthen the current customer portfolio, for which techniques such as incentives or improving customer service are used.

It is important to keep in mind that a company’s sales and marketing objectives vary throughout its life cycle. That is, the objectives will not be the same when you are starting out as when it comes to a company that is already established in the market. Nor will the situation be the same when it is planned to launch a new product on the market or increase business with a new line of action, for example. Sales enablement guide

Types of marketing objectives

Marketing actions are assumed to be beneficial for the business, but it is not always clear at what point or how to maximize benefits. At this point it is also important to keep sales objectives in mind so that they align with marketing objectives.

Here we list some of the most common marketing objectives in companies:

• Improve a good brand reputation: If your brand image is not positive, sales will never be optimal. Achieving a good brand reputation should not only be focused on the customer but also within the company itself. One of the actions that can help us improve our image is to work on two-way communication with our contacts and potential clients to show our concern and attention towards them.
• Increase the number of clients: Without a doubt, the growth of any company is related to the increase in clients. One of the most important objectives of marketing is to attract new customers by teaching and demonstrating that our solution or product is the most appropriate for their needs and getting them to make their purchasing decision. 3. Build customer loyalty
• Customer loyalty: a marketing strategy cannot end with attracting new customers but we must go further to create a lasting relationship with our customers.
• Obtain more, but above all, better sales: knowing our audience well and the concerns and problems of our audience will be key so that the sales we make are of better quality. This objective will be closely linked to sales actions, so that the potential contacts that we send from marketing to sales are qualified.

How To Define Sales And Marketing Objectives

It is important to clearly define the company’s objectives to define the actions to follow later. Here are some tips to know how to define them appropriately:

Alignment between marketing and sales objectives

To achieve objectives, it is essential that the company knows how to coordinate all the actions carried out within its marketing and sales departments. Its unification will allow all its efforts to be concentrated in the same direction, thus avoiding possible conflicts or conflicting interests.

When both departments are integrated through a sales funnel, that is, if communication between both is optimal and successful, it is easier and faster to identify which strategies are working and which are not. To do this, you must not only focus your efforts on marketing actions, but you must also ensure that in the attraction and conversion stages they lead the sales team to close sales. This coordination between both parties will result in greater speed and effectiveness in achieving objectives.

From the fusion of both teams, the Smarketing concept was born, a technique that helps achieve the organization’s objectives in an optimal way by viewing both departments as complementary

The importance of having the company’s sales and marketing objectives well defined

When setting goals, good management and planning of these provides numerous advantages to an entire organization. Among these advantages are:

• They unify efforts: when clear business objectives are set, it is guaranteed that all departments of the company look in the same direction, generating greater participation, dedication and commitment from them. This union between all members of the company will allow the desired objectives to be achieved in a faster and less expensive way.
• They define the necessary resources: planning the objectives guarantees a correct allocation of the available resources according to their characteristics. This will allow the development of tasks to be optimized and will allow us to be closer to achieving the desired purposes.
• They eliminate uncertainty: correctly defined objectives must mark what, when and where. Through them, it would allow us to deduce the reason for the actions that are carried out to achieve the objectives.

Traditional Marketing Actions To Achieve Sales Objectives

• Promotions, offers and discounts: these techniques serve to increase sales of both new products and existing ones that need to be replaced.
• Attendance at fairs: it is a marketing classic that is used both to establish new business relationships and to retain existing customers. The only downside is that participation in these types of events is usually quite expensive.
• Cross-selling: also known as cross-selling, this method consists of offering the customer complementary products to the one they initially purchased. It can be applied both online and offline.
• Up-selling: consists of suggesting to the customer a product similar to the one they are interested in but that offers better features or greater value. In general, these are usually more expensive products (up-selling by price), but we can also offer a product that we consider better adapts to the customer’s needs (up-selling by value).

Online Marketing Actions To Achieve Business Objectives

• Inbound marketing: this online marketing methodology is aimed at capturing leads or contacts that the sales department can work on at a commercial level. To do this, it relies on different techniques such as SEO positioning, content marketing, social media or web design.
• Paid media: this involves making paid advertisements on online platforms such as search engines such as Google, social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter…) or different portals through display ads. This tactic is quite effective, although it can also be quite expensive depending on the sector in which you work.
• Email marketing: it is about creating strategies by sending newsletters to achieve certain commercial objectives. Email marketing can be applied in all phases of the sales funnel (discovery, awareness, consideration and decision), as well as customer loyalty. Although it is also one of the techniques used in inbound marketing, it can be used as a strategy in itself.