Embracing Sales and Marketing Alignment to Drive Business Success

Alignment between sales and marketing definitely matters. If you feel that your

company could be doing more to create synergies between their sales and marketing functions, then it’s probably true. A few clear signs could be hearing remarks from the

sales team like, “I don’t know what marketing does to bring us leads.” or “We’re the ones that bring in the money, I don’t know what marketing does.” Or if you are on the marketing side, you may have heard something to the effect of, “Sales has no clue what we’re doing to bring in quality leads.” These statements are sad but true reflections of the conversations that happen when marketing and sales teams are siloed. The good news is that, this doesn’t have to be this way. In a perfectly aligned sales and marketing environment the alignment creates a beautiful symphony of music. If you aren’t already trying to align these functions within your organization, we have a few reason’s that might just make you reconsider your approach.

“Embrace the new normal, sales and marketing are continuously and increasingly more integrated. Marketing can’t afford to not know about sales – or how they manage their relationship with customers, and sales has to be in lockstep with marketing to drive success throughout the buyers journey.” – Angela Collins, President, Ninth Life Consulting Group

Consumer preferences are changing.

With the rapid proliferation of cloud transformation, we are seeing a shift in the way that customers make their buying decisions. In the past, consumers simply picked up the phone or emailed their sales rep to get information about your products and services. In the age of digital transformation B2B consumers are bypassing sales and making a b-line to get needed information from online sources. According to Forrester, in 2017, the percentage of customers expressed a, “Don’t call me, I’ll call you,” sentiment at a 68 percent. This represented a 28 percent increase over the 2015 survey given just two years prior. This is a leading indicator that sales and marketing teams need to not only be at a place to collaborate but also work together on the front-end to determine sales priorities so that marketing can bring in the right leads.

Performance.

SiriusDecisions research indicates that sales and marketing alignment can drive between 5 percent and 36 percent of an organization’s growth. That’s right, when you have marketing and sales singing from the same script your business performs better. This road to growth starts with the two teams sitting together and setting their goals while clearly outlining and agreeing to one another’s role to make the goals a reality. This connection isn’t something that just happens once or twice a year, it’s ongoing –at least monthly and involves the two working in lockstep drive leads, nurture prospects and ensure that a successful transition to sales occurs when leads come in. The process for determining success from sales is often very straightforward, however measuring success for marketing often requires that sales teams work make sure there is a closed loop process in which they can engages with marketing to let them know what’s working really working.

The right stuff baby!

Your sales team often has a pulse on the voice of the customer. They know their challenges and they have good insight as to what could appeal to consumers in terms of messaging. There is nothing worse than getting a campaign that does not resonate consumers, or engaging with consumers and not being able to speak clearly about the value preposition of goods or services.  Making sure that marketing and sales teams have an open line of communication where sales is brought in to validate key campaign messages to ensure that your content lands well. Involving the sales team during the marketing validation process also warms up the sales team by giving them an opportunity to digest concepts and content that will help them to nurture customers and prospects through the sales journey.

Would you like to explore sales and marketing alignment opportunities within your company? We’re passionate about helping businesses increase their organizational effectiveness and experience sales growth. Visit us at www.ninthlifeconsulting.com or contact us at info@ninthlifeconsulting.com.