Unlocking More

Effective Marketing
Collaboration With
Sales & Agency Teams
Custom content for Brandfolder by studioID
C
ollaboration is the lifeblood of marketing,
but marketing teams often struggle to work
effectively and efficiently with internal and
external partners. When working with other
teams and entities — especially agencies and members of
their organizations’ sales departments — marketers often
experience misalignments and communication issues that
stifle their success, ultimately diminishing the impact of
their contributions to the business.

This playbook will help marketing teams become better,

more collaborative partners to sales teams and agencies —
ultimately helping them better deliver for the business.

2
Sales & Marketing:
Commonly Misaligned
Sales and marketing often share big-picture objectives about
growing the business, but misalignments between them abound.
Ninety percent of sales and marketing leaders acknowledge a
misalignment across their organization’s strategy, process, content "It also kind of creates a divide
and culture. This misalignment results in underutilization of resources between sales and marketing.
and too much guessing on the marketing side: 55% of marketers, for Marketing may feel like, ‘We do
example, don’t know which assets salespeople use most. all of this work and for what, we
don’t feel appreciated, seen or
When marketing teams invest in assets sales doesn’t need or want,
recognized.’ And sales may have a
“you might have a team of individuals putting a lot of time, effort,
perspective of ‘We don’t need this.
energy and resources into something that is not being used,” observes
Why do you keep giving us things
Aaron Kiyaani-McClary, senior product marketing manager at
Brandfolder. “And all of that is going nowhere when it could be better that we don’t feel are
spent on efforts that contribute to company projects or help get actually relevant?’”
products off the ground.”
AARON KIYAANI-MCCLARY
Senior product marketing manager, Brandfolder

3
5 Keys to Unlocking Better
Marketing-Sales Collaboration
“It’s essential to have sales and
marketing come together in
understanding the value that
exists on both sides. For marketers,
sitting in on a sales call or a win-loss
call can provide them with first-
person, high-quality information
to take back to all different teams
within the business.”
AARON KIYAANI-MCCLARY
Senior product marketing manager, Brandfolder
Achieving better alignment starts with understanding how the
sales team works, and it continues with communication and
engagement. Here are five ways to improve collaboration.
1. START WITH FOUNDATIONAL KNOWLEDGE.
If marketers don’t know how their sales team counterparts do
their jobs, their teams will never be able to achieve alignment. But
having individuals on both sides engage in learning opportunities
can drive up understanding and help bring members of two teams
closer. Have marketers sit in on sales calls, for example, and offer
sales team members training opportunities to learn about new
marketing campaigns and initiatives.
4
2. GET CLEAR ABOUT GOALS.
With knowledge of how sales’ objectives support the business,
marketing teams can stay better informed on how well marketing-
made resources support those objectives. Marketing teams should
learn the sales team’s big-picture goals and objectives and key
results (OKRs) and stay engaged with how they support larger
business goals. They should also monitor shared KPIs that matter to
both teams, such as Lead-to-Win Rate, MQL (marketing qualified
lead) to Revenue Ratio, and Length of Buying Cycle.
“Having KPIs and OKRs that ladder up to business goals is the
first step,” suggests Kiyaani-McClary. “From there, it’s about making
sure there’s alignment cross-functionally so that everyone in sales
and marketing is working towards one north star and people are not
getting lost along the way.”
3. DRIVE UP COMMUNICATION.
Marketers shouldn’t lean exclusively on KPIs and analytics to stay
informed on how their sales counterparts are doing. Establish regular
check-ins between team leaders, and encourage marketers to
continually ask questions of the sales team members to determine
which marketing efforts are helping sales the most.
“There are so many convoluted ways of engaging, whether it’s a
survey or a form designed to gauge how everyone feels about this
and that,” says Kiyaani-McClary. “But taking a more human, personal
approach — where marketing asks, ‘What do you actually need?
What do you use, what do you not like, what do you like?’ at multiple
touch points throughout content development or whatever it is that
you’re helping with sales support — fosters a lot more buy-in from
the sales side.”
5
4. RESPOND TO REAL-TIME FEEDBACK.
Technology can help drive up communication and make it easier for
marketers and sales team members to share feedback. Marketing
teams should utilize tools and solutions that enable them to receive
real-time updates, so that they can quickly use new information
to adapt their strategies. These can include customer relationship
management (CRM) offerings like Salesforce and communication
tools like Slack.
“Organizations need to be using platforms that support instant
comments and annotations, where you can see a version history of
what’s been changed and what hasn’t,” urges Kiyaani-McClary. “And
if marketing is given access to the Salesforce CRM that many sales
teams use, they can also get feedback by looking at sales data from
a win-loss perspective and analyzing that information against what
marketing has been providing them with.”
marketers easily give and respond to feedback, having a centralized,
shareable library of up-to-date sales enablement materials and other
assets helps team members of both sales and marketing to use the
right resources in the moments they need them. A digital asset
management solution can act as that library.
“Having a single source of truth where all assets live is the best way
to boost accessibility to data and resources,” says Kiyaani-McClary.
“If you have asset sprawl — if you have a bunch of documents,
content and other assets that live in lots of different places — you
don’t know what is relevant, what’s new, what you can use and
what you can’t use.”

“That way, marketers get quality information on wins and losses

that they can take back to their teams to operationalize new efforts
that better support sales,” says Kiyaani-McClary.

5. HAVE A SINGLE SOURCE OF TRUTH FOR ASSETS.

Technology should also make it simple for marketing and sales team
members to ensure the right people have access to the right assets.
Just as real-time CRM tools and communication technology help

6
Agencies & Marketing:
Grasping for Trust
Working effectively with agencies can also have its challenges.
“Clients are keenly aware that
Among both clients and agencies, 98% agree that trust leads to
agencies are working on several
great advertising. But that trust remains lacking: 84% of agencies,
for example, say they understand how to drive sales for their clients’ different projects, clients, or
brands, but only 56% of their clients agree. brands at one time. And often
misalignment feels as though the
When a marketing team and agency partner are misaligned, it agency isn’t spending enough
“ultimately makes the client feel like they’re not being heard or not time — or doesn’t have enough
being understood,” asserts Amanda Turcotte, senior digital marketing
bandwidth — to really listen, take
manager at Brandfolder. Amanda, who now works in house managing
proper notes, fully investigate
agency relationships, spent a year on the agency side, allowing her to
issues and take care of the client.
have a more nuanced perspective from both sides. “Clients are hiring
the agencies to be consultants. So if they’re not on the same page That ultimately results in this
from the jump, that does breed mistrust.” situation where the client is asking
more of the agency to prove that
For marketers, that mistrust might stem from feeling like an agency there is enough bandwidth, and it
isn’t putting in enough work on the client’s account. becomes this vicious cycle.”

AMANDA TURCOTTE
Senior digital marketing manager, Brandfolder

7
5 Keys to Unlocking Better
Marketing-Agency Collaboration
To help avoid that vicious cycle, among other negative impacts
of agency misalignment, marketers can take several steps.

1. ESTABLISH CLEAR OBJECTIVES.

Agency partners should understand what success for clients looks

like in terms of business value, not just marketing metrics. Take
the time, from the start of every project, to go over not only the
KPIs the agency will measure for each project but also the ultimate
outcomes (in terms of revenue, new-customer acquisition, PR goals,
or otherwise) that marketing hopes to deliver to the business by
partnering with the agency.

In working with digital agencies, for example, “it's important

to have a discussion of goals outside of the lens of digital
marketing,” says Turcotte. “So not talking about conversions or
click throughs, but rather focusing on what you are trying to
create for the business.”

8
2. MAKE COMMUNICATION COUNT.

Key to agency relationships, regular status calls to check in on an

ongoing agenda can close communication gaps. Maintain an agenda
that includes time for marketing to be briefed on in-progress projects
and bring up any new issues. Ask questions, and give the agency the
time it needs to provide a proper answer.

“I really make sure that I take advantage of all of the time that I have
afforded with my agencies,” says Turcotte. “I know that that is the
agency's dedicated time to be talking with me and it would benefit me
to use that time thoughtfully instead of trying to ping them outside of
that time excessively.”

“I like to ask my agency a question but then always follow it up with,

‘You don’t have to answer it right now. Feel like you can go do your
research and come back to me,’” explains Turcotte. “Giving my agency
some breathing room to really go back and try to get the best answer
for me ultimately drives up better collaboration.”

9

“The more clear that you're being
in your communication, the more
streamlined you're being with
your tools, the more consistent
that you're being with providing
materials and directives around the
use of those materials and assets,
ultimately the more time there is
for the account manager and their
team to actually do meaningful
work on your account.”
AMANDA TURCOTTE
Senior digital marketing manager, Brandfolder
3. STREAMLINE WAYS OF WORKING TOGETHER.
Ideally, marketers shouldn’t feel like they’re competing with
agencies’ other clients for time and resources. (And if they do, they
should communicate it.) But agencies’ time is spread thin, and there
is a finite amount of time they have to spend on each account.
Knowing this, marketers are wise to make it simple for agencies
to work with them. Having one centralized communication stream
that both sides use from the start, for example, allows for faster
communication and better collaboration.
“If you're sending digital assets to an agency via Slack sometimes,
and then sometimes via email, et cetera, you're basically creating
a situation where the agency needs to treasure-hunt around for
everything,” says Turcotte. “And ultimately the time that they're
dedicating to your account is wasted on trivial tasks, like finding an
asset instead of actually creating a really great ad out of that asset.”
Instead, Turcotte advises granting agencies simplified access
to creative in order to limit the amount of back and forth spent
requesting and sharing access.
“This allows the agency to spend its finite amount of time on
your account doing more meaningful consultive, performance-
driven work," says Turcotte.
10
4. BOOST ACCESSIBILITY TO RESOURCES.
To unleash an agency’s creativity, marketers need to provide them
with everything they need to execute — from brand guidelines to
imagery to videos. Using a digital asset management solution to boost
agencies’ access to up-to-date assets can help them come up with
better ideas, faster — helping them better deliver for the business.
“When I started at Brandfolder, one of the most significant things
I did was just go through our Brandfolder for marketing and see the
entire inventory of great creative we had available for use,” recalls
Turcotte. “That really inspired a lot of really great ideas and strategies
for different channels and different ways I could help progress the
message over time.”
“Seeing everything in one view really allowed me to pull together
a cohesive marketing story,” adds Turcotte. “If I was just given a few
of those and then a few more over time, our strategy would’ve rolled
out a lot more slowly. Having accessibility to everything at once is
really beneficial.”
5. CELEBRATE JOINT WINS.
Bringing agencies into marketing-team wins helps maintain
connection and keep the agency engaged with your organization. Be
sure to communicate all successes the agency played a role in — even
if it’s a small one. Doing so helps maintain connection and keep the
agency engaged with your team.
“As someone who’s worked at agencies, you do feel very distant from
the wins and the successes, and often there is this just this sense that
working with each client is just one problem after another or one
challenge after the next,” admits Turcotte. “So I know that sharing
those wins and successes can be really impactful for our whole team’s
morale, and also keeps the agency motivated to help us achieve our
successes as they get to feel like they’re part of it.”
11
In Conclusion: The Imperative
to Achieve Cohesion
Collaboration is about proactively seeking out diversity of thought
and ensuring shared visions across a project or initiative. Consistent, THE STEPS TO UNLOCKING BETTER
effective collaboration with other entities creates a more engaged, MARKETING COLLABORATION
cohesive marketing organization that can better deliver what
consumers want. Achieving better alignment ultimately drives up WITH SALES
collaboration — resulting in better outcomes for marketing, and for
the business. 1. Start With Foundational Knowledge.
2. Get Clear About Goals.
Becoming a highly collaborative marketing team takes effort, but it 3. Drive Up Communication.
pays off in better outcomes achieved with the help of internal and 4. Respond to Real-Time Feedback.
external teams. For many marketers, it takes a shift in strategies and 5. Have a Single Source of Truth for Assets.
toolsets for them to reach their full potential as partners to sales and
agency teams. WITH AGENCIES

For additional insights on unlocking easier collaboration, 1. Establish Clear Objectives.

2. Make Communication Count.
3. Streamline Ways of Working Together.
WATCH THE VIDEO
4. Boost Accessibility To Resources.
5. Celebrate Joint Wins.

12
Brandfolder is the world’s most powerfully simple digital asset management
platform for storing, sharing, and showcasing assets. Organizations like Slack,
OpenTable, Shazam, and HealthONE rely on Brandfolder to deliver consistent,
organized, and efficient brand experiences.

For more information, including signing up, getting more information about the
additional features of the application, and learning about better branding practices,
visit Brandfolder.com or email info@brandfolder.com.

LEARN MORE
studioID is Industry Dive’s global content studio offering brands
an ROI rich tool kit: Deep industry expertise, first-party audience
insights, an editorial approach to brand storytelling, and targeted
distribution capabilities. Our trusted in-house content marketers
help brands power insights-fueled content programs that nurture
prospects and customers from discovery through to purchase,
connecting brand to demand.

LEARN MORE