Why is aligning your sales and marketing so difficult?

Introduction

Sales and marketing alignment is the art of getting your sales and marketing teams to collaborate and communicate more effectively — for higher quality leads that convert to increased sales. However, for many companies it can feel like these two vital functions often pull in two directions, alienating your most important asset – the customer. Here’s the thing: It doesn’t have to feel like herding cats.

Why things go wrong

There could be many reasons for your issues, but these are the most common:

• Teams work independently, often in separate areas.
• They have different names for steps in the process. 
• Marketing generally reports on leads, and sales reports on revenue.
• Content is often misaligned between the two. 

What to focus on

Getting these two areas to align will help you create the outcomes you want in terms of increased conversions and fewer wasted leads. What you can do:

• Decide which audience you are targeting. 
• Create core messages that speak to their needs.
• Define a common language for sales and marketing.
• Agree on a process for working with leads (MQL and SQL).
• Standardise the content you use across the buyer’s journey.

Benefits of alignment

• It can drive growth up as much as 35%.
• There is a 10% shorter sales cycle.
• Annual company revenue can increase by 8.2%.
• It improves brand awareness by 8.0%.
• The value of an average deal increases by 6.1%.

Final thoughts:

Sales and marketing alignment needs to relentlessly focus on the customer and what your product or service will do to meet their need. If you don’t align on that, you will never achieve the results you want.

How we can help:

If you’re struggling to align your sales and marketing teams, take a deep breath — we can help!

We offer a 1 hour brainstorm session that gets everyone on the same page, fast. You’ll get your strategy on a page as well as a game plan to take your forward.