Don't Just Enable ... Align!

When explaining what I do, often I use an analogy where the Sales and Marketing teams are the 'Step Brothers' of an organization.

The CEO is the 'dad' and sales is his 'biological son' ... the CEO and Sales team have a close relationship. Sales generates new business, so the dad can easily measure their contribution to the company. Then here comes marketing ... marketing, on the other hand, spends most of its days strategizing new ways to generate leads for the sales team utilizing effective tactics - all of which costs the company. Sales makes the money, marketing spends it. So they are always at odds.

And then the real dysfunction begins. Sales misses their goals, fingers start pointing and who gets blamed? Marketing. Not enough leads. Leads are bad. Marketing blames their small budget. And sales is lazy. Don't know how to close.

Too often, this is a scenario I find when I begin an engagement. A company has always had a sales team and brought in the marketing function to drive more leads and if they are real savvy, to also generate some demand, all in an effort to 'enable' the sales team. This scenario simply does not work. Sales will always blame marketing for shortfalls. Marketing will always focus on trying to prove their worth and nothing gets accomplished.

That's why we must 'flip the script' and refocus our efforts on truly aligning our sales and marketing teams to create an endless loop of revenue generating opportunities.

Failure to align sales and marketing teams around the right processes and technologies cost B2B companies 10-20 percent or more of revenue per year due to decreased sales productivity and wasted marketing efforts.

It’s time to get your teams oriented.

When sales and marketing teams work together to develop prospecting, lead generation, demand generation, nurturing, closing, retention and referral strategies ... goals and accountability align. When goals and accountability align you will see a more efficient sales and marketing process. You see happier stakeholders. And most importantly a much healthier bottom line.

The question is how to get there.

Every organization's needs are different and should develop their own tailored sales and marketing alignment playbook, but here are 8 basic steps to get you pointed in the right direction:

• Establish Goals And KPIs. What goals and expectations do both departments have and what metrics will be measured to determine if the goals have been met? When marketing and sales are clear on each other’s objectives, they’ll gain a better understanding of the thought process behind the actions, and will be better able to help each other at every stage.
• Identify An Ideal Customer Profile. A combination of customer and prospect feedback and sales team input will form the basis for whom your marketing should be targeting, what messaging and offers will best resonate with them, and what channels are best for reaching them with your content. When marketing is expected to define buyer personas without input from the sales team, salespeople will always be able to blame poor close rates on marketing attracting the wrong types of leads.
• Define A Lead Generation Strategy Together. In addition to helping to define the ideal buyer personas, the sales team should also provide feedback on the lead generation strategies coming from the marketing team. Marketing has a plan, but it might not complement what sales is trying to achieve. Sales wants to close deals, but may not understand how prospects were attracted in the first place. Collaborating on a unified strategy will improve communication on all fronts.
• Determine How To Identify A Warm Lead. The sales and marketing teams should work together to identify all the ways that leads interact with your brand and products and assign negative and positive point values to each of those activities. With that information and a bit of marketing automation, marketing can help sales identify which leads are most likely to be sales ready, allowing them to prioritize leads.
• Define Clear Responsibilities. Traditional sales funnel models keep sales and marketing siloed. If both departments were responsible for revenue, and not just for lead generation or closing, they would work more closely together. This would also make lead hand-off a smooth and effective process throughout the "loop."
• Measure Success. The sales and marketing teams should continue to meet on a regular basis—weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly—to report on the success of each department's efforts. Are marketing’s efforts bringing in quality leads? Do the lead scores accurately reflect the sales readiness of the leads sales is talking to? Are there any sales tools or collateral that would help the sales team close more deals? Is the sales team hearing any frequently asked questions, pain points or objections that could be addressed with new marketing content? Are there ways that either sales or marketing could help shorten the buy cycle for their customers?
• Practice Positive Reinforcement. If you are holding sales and marketing teams to arbitrary quotas, lest they will be fired or demoted, you are creating a culture of fear. For your sales and marketing alignment "loop" to work, your teams need to feel comfortable opening up with each other and putting new ideas on the table. Your employees will get more fulfillment from their job and their happiness will shine through in their work. That translates to happy customers, creative sales and marketing strategies and optimal profits.
• Optimize And Iterate. Continue to evaluate the data. What strategies are working? How can you amplify those winning strategies or use those strategies as a framework for another sector that needs growth? Which strategies are not working and why? Keep a record of what’s been done and in what context to help establish a playbook that will make developing future strategies more efficient.

I say it every time ... sales and marketing are on the same team—they just don’t know it yet. Once they become aware of how each contributes to the other, they’ll become best friends.