FCCS News & Insights

Aligning Sales and Marketing (and we’re all in sales and marketing)

Marketing and sales don’t always work hand in hand.  

Sales and marketing have long been siloed. In practice, though, sales and marketing need to work in tandem, aligning their roles and goals to ensure that revenue generation is clearly the responsibility of both teams.

Misalignment can significantly impact revenue with lost sales and wasted marketing dollars.  However, organizations willing to spend the time to get their sales and marketing teams on the same page show tremendous wins.

According to the Digital Marketing Institute, 

“Organizations that successfully align sales and marketing achieve 36% higher customer retention and 38% higher win rates.”

Today, it is critical to assess whether your connection to the customer is desirable, memorable and shareable (yes, this means around the community – literally and digitally).

To better align your sales and marketing efforts, we recommend the five Cs of Collaboration: Culture and C-Suite, Content, Channels and Connections.  We can adjust our thinking to learn from the new customer mindset. The questions below can help you get started.

Culture and C-Suite

You always start at the top. The first step in aligning sales and marketing teams takes commitment at the C-level of the company, then an agreement with your marketing and sales leaders. 

• Do your senior leaders understand the importance of sales and marketing alignment?
• Do marketing and sales leaders meet regularly to discuss goals, objectives, and messaging?
• Does your culture demonstrate collaboration?
• Does sales and marketing agree on the ideal prospect and customer?

Content

Involve sales in your content development. For sales professionals looking to engage customers and convert sales, relevant and high-quality content has proven more effective than promoting products.

• Are you developing “pushy content” in coordination with your sales team? – content that moves potential customers closer to their buying decision?
• Do your marketers know from a sales perspective what is working to win and retain customers?
• What’s happening in the field? Is anyone asking?

Channels

Capitalize on the customer journey to serve them with the right information, on the right channels, at the right points in the sales process.  Start with the target customer – when customer goals and challenges are well-understood, you can deploy messaging in an aligned fashion on all your channels, including internal communications.

• Are your sales people taking advantage of your digital media channels?  
• What phases of buying do your prospects go through and what information do they need at each phase?
• Do your channels and campaigns help answer customers’ questions and concerns along each step in the customer journey?

Connections

Make meaningful connections from your products and services to the customer. Rethink lead generation and replace it with meaningful conversations and relevant experiences. Mapping your customer journey from prospect to loyal customer creates understanding regarding the connections and experiences you need to develop.

• What is your process for handling leads? Do your sales leaders agree with this approach?
• What is the journey with your organization from prospect to loyal customer?
• How can you encourage and support your loyal customer advocates to help connect you to other prospective customers?