marketing sales alignment

8/10/2019 Marketing Sales Alignment

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IN MARKETING & SALESALIGNMENT2012

TOP

TREND


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Overview

According to Aberdeen Research, successful sales and marketing

alignment can result in a 20% average growth in annual revenue.Misaligned organizations, on the other hand, can experience an

average 4% decline.1 Other research shows that businesses with

the greatest degree of alignment close 38% more proposals and

lose 36% fewer customers to the competition.2

Organizations that have successfully aligned sales and marketing

work as a group toward a common goal by using technologies and

processes to both generate demand and close business.

Alignment can be difficult to achieve, however. Marketing often

complains that Sales isnt following up on leads, while Sales

complains that Marketing doesnt deliver good leads. For true

alignment, Sales needs to understand that Marketing is not sales

support and, conversely, Marketing needs to understand that

Sales is not just a front line delivery tactic.

Perhaps the greatest obstacle to achieving alignment starts at the

top. CEOs and toplevel executives often regard marketing as a

reactive cost center, not a proactive demand creator.

Certainly CEOs and VPs must wear multiple hats, but that canresult in a general focus on internal operations. Shifting to the

proactive, customerfocused viewpoint of todays forwardthinking

marketers, however, should be a top priority.

In addition, CEOs and VPs need to train their senior management

teams to put customers above all else. Innovation, product quality

and lowering costs are all important to meeting planned business

objectives, but marketing and sales alignment comes from a

shared agreement that the overall business goal is to win new

customers and keep existing customersand all areas of specialty

within the company must work toward this end.

1 Source: Sales and Marketing Alignment: Collaboration + Cooperation = Peak Performance,

Aberdeen Research, 2010.

2 Source: MathMarketing Alignment Benchmarking Study, MathMarketing.com.

The Leader-to-Leader Institute

(formerly the Peter F. Drucker

Foundation) cites morphing

markets and hyper-competition

the two main reasons CEOs an

top-level executives should pla

marketing ahead of all else.

Morphing Markets: Traditional

marketing methods are no long

effective--they cant reach todmobile consumers. CEOs and t

executives must carefully watc

and continually adjust marketi

efforts to match ever-changing

hybrid technologies, fast-chan

business strategies and new

business models.

Hyper-competition: Todays

technology gives more compa

direct access to your customeand prospects. Product

differentiation is more difficult

to achieve. A unique, compell

message and solid branding

practices are critical in helpin

companies rise above the nois

the competition. This begins w

marketing.


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Where to Start

Marketing and sales alignment begins with stakeholder agreement

and shared definitions and recognition of technologys role inalignment. When marketing and sales agree upon definitions and

use the same tools and technology to generate demand and close

deals, positive results abound.

Stakeholder Agreement and Shared Definitions

A complete and consistent agreement on the definitions and

measurements of success is the foundation for sales and

marketing alignment and will remove a major hurdle in reaching

full revenue potential. As a result of everchanging environments,

human resources and products/services, its critical for

organizations to revisit these definitions at least twice per year to

ensure consistency.

Though the task is large, interdepartmental agreement of these

definitionsand a restructured compensation plan that reflects

the shared overall goal of winning new business and keeping

existing businessreinforces CEO and top executive commitment

to customer focus and significantly impacts internal thought

processes, behavior and accountability on a daily basis.

Technologys Role in Alignment

Unfortunately, technology companies tend to oversell fixalls to

marketing departments looking to make fast and easy changes.

Though technology is not the answer, it is a major part of the

solution.

With stakeholder agreement of definitions, companies can move

on to the technological hub that will house this information,

enable sales with powerful selling tools, automate marketing

campaigns, allow for proactive adjustments and ultimatelybecome a precise financial forecasting system.

Aberdeen Research states 84% of the best in class organizations

empower marketing with access to a CRM tool.3The quality

of information from a CRM tool, and the lead generation, lead

scoring and lead nurturing capabilities of marketing automation

platform have a significant impact on sales and marketing

alignment.

3 Source: Sales and Marketing Alignment: Collaboration + Cooperation = Peak Performance,

Aberdeen Research, 2010.

Sales and marketing alignmen

begins with a clear, shared

definition of the following:

1. Prospect

2. Cold lead

3. Warm lead

4. Hot lead

5. Opportunity

6. Sales-ready lead

7. The stages of the sales cyc


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These technologies allow campaign leads to be funneled to the

right sales rep, give them the information they need to bring the

lead to close, and house behavior and persona data and metrics

relevant to all future campaigns. Reporting and interdepartmental

communication of this information makes it easier for every

discipline within the organization to adjust their daily tactics to

stay on a customerfocused goal.

The Importance of Sales Enablement

Another ongoing trend that lends itself to truer marketing and

sales alignment is industrys increasing recognition of the

importance of sales enablement.

Sales enablement is the practice of supporting sales with

key value messaging, product information and detailed leadcharacteristics, allowing them to have the most relevant, timely

and efficient conversation with their prospects.

Throughout the entire sales cycle, marketing is adding new

targets, acknowledging their relevance, uncovering suspects,

driving leads into the pipeline, nurturing them to maturity, handing

them off to the appropriate sales executive, receiving feedback

and adjusting information and tactics to ensure more success in

future campaigns.

Again, shared definitions and proper use of technology are

critical to sales enablement, allowing marketing to provide true

information on where prospects lie in the sales cycle, trends in

their digital behavior, and their response to emails and other

communications. The ability for marketing to communicate such

rich historyand for sales to accept and efficiently use itmakes

all customer and prospect engagements more relevant and timely.

Sales and marketing alignmen

will ultimately increase overal

growth rates, improve close

rates and decrease customer

abandonment.

Strategy: Sales and marketing

groups must focus on the same

goal--to keep existing custome

and win new business.

Top-down culture: CEO and top

level management must implem

a top-down culture that recogn

marketing as a proactive dema

creation center.

Stakeholder agreement and

shared definitions: A complete

and consistent agreement on t

definitions and measurements

of success is a foundational

characteristic of sales andmarketing alignment.

Technology integration: CRM

and marketing automation too

become a hub that houses

customer information, enables

sales with powerful selling too

automates marketing campaig

allows for proactive adjustmen

and becomes a precise financ

forecasting system.

Sales Enablement: Providing s

with powerful tools that allow

them to have the most relevan

timely and efficient conversati

with their prospects.


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About IDS Technology Marketing

IDS Technology Marketing is a fullservice marketing firm focused on delivering endtoend,

tightly integrated sales and marketing solutions for savvy B2B technology companies throughout

the United States and abroad.

Our deep handson experience in technology sales and marketing helps us understand the

needs of todays IT buyersCIOs, IT directors, managers, and administrators. And it helps us

understand the importance of the influencers and how IT purchasing decisions are distributed

across many levels and departments of a business.

Many of the worlds leading manufacturers of hardware and software for storage, security, cloud

computing, virtualization, networking, and mobile technologies rely on IDS Technology Marketing

for:

marketing strategy

marketing campaign design

development and implementation

sales enablement

lead generation and nurturing

B2B telemarketing and outsourced inside sales

GET IN TOUCH WITH U16435 N Scottsdale Rd. Suite 195Scottsdale, AZ 85254

Phone: 877.675.8303

Email: [email protected]

marketing sales alignment

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