Marketing and finance are the most complicated departments. Marketing plans to spend it on advertising to reach more customers. On the other hand, the finance department wants to cut the expenses to ensure business longevity.
However, the truth is that marketing and finance can work together. With the right conditions, these two departments can collaborate. You may search for an interesting read on this topic, or continue reading this article for some tips on how to effectively unite marketing and finance.
1. Improve Communication
Effective communication between marketing and finance departments can help establish strong relationships. In addition, this trait can increase workplace productivity. Based on a Watson Wyatt study, a company that communicates effectively has 50% more chances to reduce the turnover rate.
While everyone in the workplace can find communication challenging, you can still solve these issues. Here are some tips to improve relationships between the marketing and finance teams:
- Build a foundation.
If your employees can trust you, they may do whatever it takes to ease communication problems. The best way to build a foundation among your employees is by developing a rapport. For example, you can take them for lunch. Indeed, it would help if you refrained from talking about how marketing campaigns work. Therefore, the finance team should avoid talking about spreading the expenses. You can all talk about your personal lives to build strong friendships. This would allow your employees to create trust in one another. As a result, they’ll return to the office without treating one another as mere workmates.
- Set a one-on-one meeting weekly
Opening lines of communication can solve challenges between the finance and marketing teams. For example, the marketing head may want to share their concerns about their digital campaigns. However, they might feel like they’re becoming a burden to you because you’re busy on most days. By setting up one-on-one weekly meetings beforehand, you’ll understand the trials inside the departments. Consequently, this action will help you improve the workplace.
- Stay consistent in relaying information
One of the best ways to improve communication between the marketing and finance departments is by dropping regular information. Ask each team leader to carry out important updates to their department regularly. This method will make each employee feel appreciated. For example, you can help your employees learn new information quickly by making documents as additional references. Thus, they can read these handouts to understand the presentation clearly. You can also seek their suggestions on specific issues to combine the departments’ knowledge in marketing and finance.
Here are some questions you can ask the team leaders:
- How can the growth plan benefit the overall business plan?
- What does sales growth mean in terms of finance?
- How much can the company spend on marketing campaigns?
Before asking these questions, the department heads must be realistic regarding return on investment (ROI). Thus, they must plan to achieve the marketing campaign goals within a specific period.
2. Let Them Participate In Team-Building Activities
Entrepreneurs look for new ways to increase their profit and achieve success. However, the company's goals won’t be pushed through without cooperative employees. Thus, motivating employees should be a priority in the workplace.
Team-building activities are beneficial in forming a tight relationship between the finance and marketing departments. Since these activities may be an issue for the finance department, you can find cheaper ways to unite the two departments.
Here are cheap team building activities to help form unity between the marketing and finance departments:
- For introducing new departmental employees, you can pick from these options:
- Office potluck
- Through the keyhole
- Two truths and a lie
- For improving communication, you can choose the following games:
- Reverse Pictionary
- Geocaching
- Minefield
- For increasing problem-solving skills, you can pick from these options:
- Office scavenger hunt
- Classify this
- Egg drop
Developing peace within the finance and marketing departments doesn’t have to be costly. Other than these options, there are hundreds of team-building activities you can use.
Here are ten benefits you can expect after you successfully conducted these activities to the two departments:
- Improve internal communication
- Increase workplace productivity
- Improve employee morale
- Boost self-esteem
- Enhance motivation levels
- Revea different leadership qualities
- Encourage productivity
- Improve mental health
- Develop physical health
- Encourage trust, responsibility, and respect
3. Let The Marketing Team Share Success Stories With The Finance Team
Financial officers are usually skeptical when it comes to marketing expenditures. Thus, it’s vital to update them regularly with marketing success stories.
Here are three reasons why the marketing team needs the financial department:
- Marketing campaigns need finance. Financial managers are trained to predict the outcome of an expense. Therefore, they strategize first before they allot funds for marketing projects. By giving constant updates to finance, the financial manager will help prevent unnecessarily lavish expenditures for marketing their products.
- The financial team protects the company from possible finance risks. While marketers spend their time and effort on building campaigns, they don’t have enough knowledge in managing marketing finances. If the marketing team doesn’t seek advice from the financial leaders, they might spend too much on their advertising budget. Therefore, they might incur additional financial risks.
- The marketing head can hold a meeting with the financial team. The presentation must include how a particular expense helped the company reach a higher market share. This process may help the finance department allow another purchase as it increases sales revenue.
Although marketing heads always store a lot in their minds, they should prioritize giving updates to the finance team. Undoubtedly, keeping the communication lines open may help resolve misunderstandings within the two departments.
4. Hire The Right Employees
If the finance and marketing departments still clash all the time, then it’s time to hire new employees. With the cooperation of the internal teams, your small business might decrease its productivity. Furthermore, you’ll lose your sales, which can cause bankruptcy.
After all, if employees can’t work well with one another, they can’t provide customer satisfaction. Therefore, achieving sales growth begins inside the workplace.
Key Takeaway
Marketing and finance departments usually clash, yet it’s possible to build a union between the two teams. Improving internal communication contributes to workplace productivity. If the two departments work together, your small business may achieve sales growth.