This article was originally published on behalf of the Detroit Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program for the Sterling Heghts Regional Chamber of Commerce.

As a business owner, solopreneur, sales or marketing executive, having a well-thought-out and integrated marketing and sales strategy is extremely important to achieve and exceed your targeted revenue goals.

Oftentimes, the marketing and sales functions are “mashed up” into a single effort that increases expenses, lost customer opportunities and results in lower revenue. Worse yet, the marketing function is nonexistent and increases the sales cycle.

There are five incredibly simple and powerful strategies that will transform your revenue generating opportunities and help you achieve your revenue target.

1. Make the investment. Marketing can be a daunting challenge. And, the landscape seems to evolve daily with new digital and social media platforms. If that’s not enough, there are the issues of what to say, how to say it, where to say it, and who should hear it. Marketing is and should be viewed as a critical investment for the financial success of your business. Yet, many business owners and executives view marketing as an expense rather than an important component of a solid sales strategy. Marketing is not optional. It’s imperative.

2. Understand the difference. While marketing and sales is usually used interchangeably, each function has a unique and important role that contribute to producing revenue for your business. Marketing generates and nurtures leads for your sales efforts to convert purchase-ready and qualified leads into customers.

3. Align marketing and sales.If you are a small business owner or a solopreneur, then you may perform both the sales and marketing functions. It is important that these functions are performed separately as they contribute differently to your revenue generation endeavors and can yield immeasurable benefits for your company. If your company has both sales and marketing teams, collaboration and integration are imperative. Without alignment and collaboration, your bottom-line can be adversely impacted.

Why is sales and marketing alignment important to achieving higher revenue? Simply put, harmony and coordination between these equally important functions will lower your costs and increase your revenue. Here are several alignment benefits. According to a 2015 Act-On Sales and Marketing Alignment Survey, 56 percent of aligned organizations met their revenue goals, and 19 percent beat their goals.In comparison with misaligned organizations, just 37 percent met their revenue goals, and just 7 percent beat them.

The Act-On study also found that sales and marketing alignment delivers, on average, a 36 percent improvement in customer retention and 38 percent higher sales-win rates — and it accomplishes this feat by improving only half of the end-to-end customer lifecycle.

Your marketing and sales funnels should be jointly created. Employing a six- phase funnel approach, the marketing team owns the first three phases, including prospect attraction, lead generation and lead cultivation.

Once the lead achieves qualified status, a transition or handoff occurs to the sales team that is then responsible for lead conversion, proposal development, negotiation and finally closing the sale.

Following the sale, both teams should work together to cultivate loyal customers and brand ambassadors.

4. Segment your marketing efforts. Oftentimes, a one-size-fits-all marketing approach is used. This approach diminishes your ability to effectively attract, engage and cultivate prospective customers for your products or services. In fact, the one-size-fits-all approach actually trains your sales targets to ignore your communications as they are not relevant and do not resonate with your prospective customers. By segmenting your marketing communications, your messages are more attractive and will increase your visibility and credibility with your target customers.

5. Optimize your Brand. Taking the required time to proactively and consistently manage your company’s brand provides unmatched opportunities to increase your market share, attract purchase-ready customers, retain your top customers and achieve your revenue target. A strong business brand is vital to the long-term profitability of your business and enables your customers and prospects to more quickly understand why your products or services will fulfill their needs and why they must make the effort to move to a buying decision.

Both sales and marketing are two very different, yet equally important functions that must be aligned for your company’s long-term success. Aligning your sales and marketing strategies can yield tremendous financial opportunities, including achieving and likely beating your revenue goals.

With alignment, your actual marketing and sales expenses will be reduced as collaboration significantly enhances productivity and profitability. For companies, create a culture that rewards of respect, collaboration and accountability because what gets rewarded gets done. For solopreneurs, work with an accountability partner.

Always, use a dashboard that equally sets goals and evaluates both the marketing and sales teams, individually and collectively to monitor progress. Good luck!

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This article was originally published on the Business 2 Community Business Blog.

Growing a small business is no easy feat and requires a tremendous amount of perseverance, dedication, focus, and even some luck. Knowing how to manage your growth and ensuring your ability to deliver exceptional service to your customers are paramount for long-term success.

While a myriad of strategies can enable a small business to achieve growth, here are several that warrant consideration and implementation.

1. Align Sales and Marketing. The terms sales and marketing are often used interchangeably. However, these vital functions provide very different—and equally important—contributions to the company or organization. They are, in fact, the Yin-Yang that cultivate customers, generate sales, and serve as the fuel for your company. Marketing is, and should be, viewed as a critical investment for the financial success of the organization. Sales without an appropriate marketing function is costlier, less effective and reduces the bottom-line.

2. Establish a formal referral program. Data conclusively demonstrates that customer referrals are a significantly effective but extremely underutilized business strategy. According to Dale Carnegie, 91 percent of customers would give a referral, but only 11 percent are asked. Creating a formal referral program can allow your customers to help you grow by becoming a brand ambassador for your company.

3. Expand your offerings. Your customers and their needs are always evolving. And, so should your product and service offerings. Being aware of your customers’ long-term needs, research and development or industry trends enables you to anticipate their future needs and position your company to service them. This approach also affords your company the opportunity to be first-to-market and a disruptor.

4. Focus on customer relationships. Per Marketing Metrics, increasing customer retention by five percent can increase profits between 25 and 95 percent. Providing exceptional customer service that creates long-term and loyal customers is a sound strategy to grow your business. Upselling or cross selling current customers is significantly more effective and cost-efficient than securing new clients.

5. Develop strategic partnerships. Many small business owners can benefit from strategic partnerships that enable them to service a larger client or business opportunity together. While horror stories abound, careful planning and due diligence can address many issues before they occur. Engaging professional help, including legal, financial and business experts, to form the partnership is the best approach for profitability and long-term success.

6. Become a recognized thought leader and expert. Here’s a surefire way to elevate your reputation, build brand equity and attract ideal customers. Based on your industry and business, creating a blog, podcast, by-lined articles or other content to share your knowledge can be an effective strategy. Even sharing your expertise through speaking engagements, industry panels or other high-profile events provides an excellent opportunity to showcase your company and expertise.

7. Increase your geographic reach. Focusing on a manageable territory is smart. Developing opportunities to expand your customer reach is a significant growth strategy that should be pursued in a phased approach to ensure that additional customer requirements, logistics and costs are addressed.

8. Develop a new client/customer base. Data suggests that selling to new customers is between 5 and 20 percent successful. Notwithstanding this data, a focused effort to attain customers in new sectors, geographies or segments can be prudent. Knowing when to engage in new client acquisition opportunities requires a well-thought-out strategic approach and flawless implementation.

9. Just say no. Here’s a big challenge for many small business owners. The ability to confidently and appropriately address difficult customers, to walk away from an ill-fitting business opportunity or to end a customer relationship requires the self-confidence and fortitude to opt-out. Learning to say “no” when it’s not a good fit or within your wheelhouse is a significant growth strategy.

10. Elevate your brand. When growing a small business, it is extremely important that your brand continues to evolve, as it can unlock competitive advantages for the company. Your brand is a dynamic asset that must always differentiate your company and its products and services. Oftentimes, as a company grows, its brand remains static and becomes ineffective as a new customer segment, geography or service offering is pursued. It is critical to remember that, as the company grows, you must elevate your brand and communications to address the new market requirements.

11. Optimize your memberships. Each year, small business owners expend significant funds to join business, trade or other membership organizations. Yet, they rarely take advantage of these memberships to share their expertise, elevate their executive profile or build mutually beneficial relationships. With the financial investment, consider the additional investment of your time and talent by chairing a committee, serving on the board or supporting an initiative. By engaging, you will showcase your leadership capability, will enable others to take notice of you and your company, and can leverage your engagement to increase awareness for you and your company.

12. Manage your customer acquisition costs. Opportunity cost is the value of a forgone activity or alternative when another option is chosen. Opportunity cost comes into play in any decision that involves a tradeoff between two or more options. The cost associated with the customer acquisition process is an important measure for a business to evaluate in combination with how much value having each customer typically brings to the business. Your customer acquisition cost evaluation should inform your pricing strategy.

Whether your small business is newly launched, is ready to grow or is in a holding pattern, the thoughtful implementation of these growth strategies can help you succeed well into the future.

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