Having all the right tools to complete a job is essential to the achievement of every goal. In some cases, personnel may feel they don't have all the resources they need in order to get their work done as efficiently or effectively as they might otherwise, but this could be a matter of miscommunication. In some cases, a lack of collaboration between teams may be at the heart of workflow problems.

A recent study by KnowledgeTree looked at how sales and marketing staff think of one another. These two teams are vital to the success of corporate ambitions, and while sales coaching can help individual players perform better, if the entire sales division is unclear on the marketing aspect, there are bound to be more disconnects.

The root of communication errors
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The research showed that only two-thirds of all sales representatives feel that marketers are doing enough work or presenting the salesforce with the right tools to get the most clients in the door. These resources include collateral, statistics, calculators and basic external messages that effectively deliver the right ideas about certain products or services. Nearly 90 percent of marketing respondents said they felt they were putting out adequate content to meet these needs.

This disconnect seems to lie in how well personnel understand the assets available to them. Roughly 70 percent of sales staff say they're using what resources they have to the best of their ability, yet less than one-fourth are making regular use of the tools they're afforded. Sales coaches may want to consider taking a harder look at how employees are using their tools and what can be done to improve this adoption rate. No matter how effective the data and marketing outlets sales workers are afforded, if they fail to use them to their full extent, companies won't see as complete a return on investment.

My Digital Financial Chronicle stated that boosting collaboration between sales and marketing could benefit both teams in knowing what the other really wants. The outcomes and offerings of these two units are very closely tied to one another, necessitating better communication to eliminate lack of adoption and increase usability of products and resources. When these teams are in sync, organizations can expect to see more efficiency and heightened lead generation, making goal attainment and increased revenue more likely.