You know that old saying, "work smarter, not harder"? It's safe to say that's an idea we can all get behind. No one wants to spend hours of their day working on a project that won't produce results.
Unfortunately, in the case of many businesses who do not have aligned sales and marketing teams, the concept of working harder on projects that might not ever see the light of day is an everyday reality.
In fact, misalignment between sales and marketing teams has been shown to cost B2B companies 10% or more of their revenue every year.
This SlideShare from The TAS Group states, "lost sales productivity and wasted marketing budget costs companies at least $1 trillion a year."
Both of those stats offer up compelling arguments for making a change to sales and marketing alignment. Beyond just saving your sales and marketing teams wasted effort and budget though, sales and marketing alignment can actually offer some benefits to your company, delivering pretty impressive returns when implemented properly:
- Companies with good sales and marketing alignment generated 208% more revenue from marketing efforts. (Source: HubSpot.)
- 70% of organizations with marketing and sales team Service Level Agreements (SLAs) grow their sales teams as a result of their tightly aligned sales and marketing strategies.
Aligning your sales and marketing teams is one perfect example of working smarter, not harder. When your sales and marketing teams are aligned, everyone does less work to obtain a higher quantity of better, more targeted clients. Then, you can allocate all of that additional time and energy into inbound marketing and sales strategies that you know will help your company generate revenue and grow.
So, how do you get there?
Sure, sales and marketing alignment sounds nice, but can you actually make it happen, and how much work will it take?
Honestly, it depends on your company.
If you already have both sales and marketing teams onsite, you can get started by just getting everyone in the same room every week or so. If you're a larger company with sales and marketing teams that work remotely or on different campuses, it might take a bit more effort. And if your company doesn't really have a marketing team, you could have a still longer road ahead of you. (Or, you can hire a marketing team to help you out. More info on that here.)
No matter where you are, aligning your sales and marketing teams will take work. But with a potential return of 208% more revenue, it should feel like the work is worth it.
If you're interested in aligning your marketing and sales teams to boost revenue and cut out wasted time, we support you. In fact, we're going to give you six sales and marketing alignment strategies to help you do it. Check 'em out:
Communicate
We've said it before, and we'll say it again: communication will always be the key to successful marketing and sales alignment. The first and best way to get your sales and marketing teams on the first page is to get them in the same room, chatting about their wins and challenges.
Too often, it feels like sales and marketing are pitted against each other. Sales isn't happy about the quality of leads marketing is sending over, and marketing feels frustrated that sales didn't follow up with all of the leads they're sending over.
Getting your two teams in the same room is the first step to getting them to work together. Once you know what everyone is frustrated about, and also what they're cool with, you can start making a little bit of headway towards alignment.
Consider Cross-Departmental Training or Shadowing
One great marketing and sales alignment strategy is to put each team in the others' shoes for a day or even a week. When they have the opportunity to see how the other team works, what their day looks like, and what challenges they face regularly, they'll be able to function together more efficiently.
We get that this is an easy way to disrupt your regular business flow, so start slow. Take one team member at a time, and have them shadow someone from the other team for an afternoon. Make sure the team members you choose are both excited about the potential benefits that alignment can provide, and you'll find that both parties will learn something from the experience.
When the afternoon is up, your salesperson can report back to their team what they learned, and the marketing person can their team what struggles the sales team is having that they could help with.
Encourage Sales Input on Content Development
According to Forbes, 60% of B2B content never gets used. Whether the sales team doesn't feel like it fits their individual client's pain points, or they don't even know it exists, sales input is an invaluable resource when it comes to content development.
Your sales team has an intimate, one-on-one relationship with each buyer. They speak to them personally and they understand their specific, unique challenges and goals for the future. This alone should make them your marketing team's number one resource for content development.
If you're not sure how to implement more sales input on marketing content development without seriously slowing down your publishing schedule, start by having the sales team take a look at your content calendar. (You do have a content calendar, right?)
They can tell you which content they'll really be able to use, and offer a few key points to include for each upcoming post that will help you speak specifically to your target buyer's challenges and goals.
Work Together To Establish A Common Language
Marketing and sales haven't historically worked together all that much, especially in more traditional industries like manufacturing. Traditionally, marketing works to create brand awareness, get the word out there, and make sure everyone knows what your company has to offer. In that older business model, sales either take the leads that come in or (more likely) they go around looking for (read: cold calling) those perfect leads themselves.
This disjointed approach to sales and marketing as separate entities has fostered two different languages for both teams. They have different definitions of leads, they don't have the same understanding of what makes a good lead, and they have fundamentally different goals.
Sales and marketing alignment strategies start by working to establish a common language that makes sense to both teams. With that set in place, your marketing team can work to bring in the leads your sales team actually wants, and your sales team can focus their efforts on selling, rather than cold-calling.
To establish a common language that works for both teams, sales and marketing have to come up with the same definitions for these three things:
- What A Lead Is
- How You Score Leads
- A Quality Service Level Agreement
What A Lead Is
It's important that your sales and marketing teams both understand what makes a lead a good lead. And as you probably know, there are two types of leads: Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs), and Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs). It's possible that you've even defined these in the past.
But have your sales and marketing teams defined them together?
Both marketing and sales should offer input on the definitions of MQLs and SQLs, so that both teams understand what qualifications are necessary for both lead types. One clear definition, for both teams, will help with the lead handoff process, and it will help both teams understand which leads and prospects need what specific service or lead nurturing content.
With a solid foundation in place, everyone can move forward more confidently towards a tight alignment between sales and marketing that cuts out wasted time and boosts revenue.
How You Score Leads
Traditionally, the sales team has developed a process for determining which leads might be more valuable to your company than others. This process is called lead scoring.
If your goal is to get sales and marketing teams aligned for better business growth, it's important to have your marketing team in on the lead scoring calculation. They need to know what makes a lead most attractive to sales, and why.
With that information, marketing can determine which leads could use more nurturing through the marketing process, and they can better streamline their efforts to influence target buyers in the markets that offer the highest return. By bringing the marketing team into the lead scoring conversation, you help them understand what to look for in a quality lead that shows they are likely to close.
Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
One of the biggest killers of marketing sales alignment is unbalanced reporting and goals. Too often, the sales team feels like they're under the microscope to close sales, and the marketing team feels that the sales team isn't acting on all of the leads they're passing along. A service level agreement, (SLA) is the solution to this reporting imbalance.
A Service Level Agreement is a sort of contract that helps clear up some of this misdirected pressure, while still holding both teams accountable to goals that further your company's overall revenue and growth goals. For example, with a quality SLA, your marketing team may be responsible for delivering a certain number of quality leads each month. Then, your sales team may be responsible for converting a certain percentage of those quality leads each month.
This agreement makes it clear what each team is accountable for, while still framing it in the light of one overall company goal — to produce more revenue and long-lasting clients for the company by converting highly qualified leads.
Every company's SLA will look a little different. What's important is that you get the sales and marketing teams together to agree on an SLA that's fair and contributes to your company's growth goals. When both teams understand what they're accountable for, and that accountability feels fair to both sides, you'll get a lot more out of everyone.
Leverage Sales Enablement Tools
It's easy to forget that the sales team can benefit from inbound methodology tools as much as your marketing team can. Many of your favorite marketing platforms and CRMs are designed to help your sales team as much as they are your marketing team.
Encourage your sales team to use tools like email sequences and CRMs that implement lead scoring systems for you. The information they put in the CRM, and the data they generate helps them make better selling decisions, and it offers valuable information for the marketing team to move forward and optimize with as well.
When your sales team is comfortable with enablement tools, it's also easier for your them to reach out to marketing and ask for content that will help them close deals.
Case studies, whitepapers, and ebooks about your product or service are all assets that are traditionally created by marketing. When sales is empowered to ask specifically for the content they know will help them close deals, marketing can focus their efforts on just the content that sales knows will be powerful and impactful to your buyer personas.
And again, that's an effort that cuts down on wasted time, while still promoting the targeted lead nurturing tasks that will help your company grow.
Keep a Common Goal in Mind
Finally, one of the hands-down best sales and marketing alignment strategies is to set a common goal. Even though sales and marketing do different things and have different processes, they're both on the same team. When they're both working towards the same goal, it's so much easier to see that they're on the same team. Make that overarching goal clear to both teams, and you'll see the results that marketing and sales alignment can deliver.
The more closely your sales and marketing teams are aligned, the more efficient your company will be in identifying qualified leads and closing deals. And when you close deals efficiently, you work smarter, and you grow.
If you're looking for more sales and marketing alignment strategies, tools, or tricks, we'd love to help. As a digital marketing agency, we often align with B2B sales teams to promote overall company growth, and we also train companies with existing sales and marketing teams how to align for better results. To learn more about what we do, get in touch.
