Historically, businesses’ Marketing and Sales teams have operated independently, each with its own set of priorities. This approach often leads to counterproductive outcomes as Sales teams point fingers at Marketing for their quality of leads, while Marketing blames Sales for failing to capitalize on those provided leads.
In reality, all facets of a business contribute to its revenue stream. Despite the perceived divergence in agendas between Sales and Marketing, both ultimately share a few commonalities: a tech stack and the goal of revenue growth.
To bridge the gap, Marketing and Sales leadership should remove silos and adopt an account-based strategy to synchronize and ultimately improve pipeline quality. Here are some strategies to foster collaborative efforts between these teams to enhance value for both the company and its customers, and create a data-driven, prioritized list of target accounts:
Communicate, collaborate, and integrate
Leadership plays a pivotal role in fostering a more conducive and productive relationship between Sales and Marketing teams. However, the first step to initiate this transformation is effective communication. According to a recent HubSpot report, 61% of sales leaders say alignment with Marketing is more important now than in 2023, but only 30% claim alignment.
The absence of communication between these teams ultimately hampers corporate performance. When alignment is lacking and either team encounters setbacks, the repercussions are felt throughout the entire organization. Conversely, when Sales and Marketing collaborate seamlessly, tangible improvements in specific metrics become evident. This collaboration leads to shorter sales cycles, reduced market-entry costs, and decreased sales expenses.
Sales and Marketing can bridge their perceived divide by practicing strategic tactics to streamline processes. For example, a CMO may opt to attend Sales QBRs more frequently. Alternatively, regular meetings can be scheduled where both teams align on departmental objectives with overarching corporate goals. Moreover, joint efforts can be made by marketing and sales leaders to define criteria for quality leads and craft detailed customer personas from the outset.
Taking integration even further, the opportunities become limitless when these teams dismantle their silos entirely. Marketers can immerse themselves in surrounding key accounts, while salespeople and marketers collaboratively develop and implement shared performance metrics. This integration even extends to corporate budgeting, fostering flexibility, and reducing conflicts.
Staying ahead of the competition through overlapping goals and metrics
In principle, Marketing and Sales serve distinct functions: Marketing strives to generate awareness of a company and its offerings, while Sales aims to translate that awareness into purchases. To thrive, these teams must shift their focus from being role-driven to goal-driven.
Traditionally, Marketing and Sales evaluate their performance using disparate metrics, hindering the identification of common ground. Through integration, they can find shared business goals, whether it’s generating new leads, retaining customers, or acquiring new ones.
One of the first steps for marketers to define goals is to analyze the market competition. Collaboration allows marketers to furnish the Sales team with competitor data, enabling tailored approaches for each customer based on advantages.
Another way to align Marketing and Sales teams is through similar commission plans. Both departments must align on sales targets and sales goals. If divided by product lines, the marketing leader’s product line numbers should align with the sales leaders’ numbers. The less differentiation between the departments, the less room for error.
Furthermore, sales and marketing leaders should evaluate their current tech stack to ensure the right audience is targeted. This includes martech and salestech tools such as account-based marketing (ABM) platforms, intent data tools, automation platforms, and sales enablement and engagement tools.
Healthy pipeline generation through the ABM approach
Many businesses look to adopt an account-based strategy to address challenges regarding their pipeline health. To put it simply, account-based marketing (ABM) is a targeted B2B strategy that involves targeting multiple stakeholders within an account rather than the traditional one-to-one sales method.
Unfortunately, when Sales and Marketing don’t communicate effectively, this strategy often results in weak performance due to disagreement on which accounts to prioritize. With no communication, businesses are often missing a formal data-driven process to determine a business’s priority accounts. While marketers and salespeople argue on the target account list, they waste time, energy, and resources on low probability or low-value targets. To aid internal collaboration, alignment is needed to identify a list of priority accounts and drive strategic pipeline generation.
There are several key strategies leaders can take into consideration when adopting an account selection process, including:
- Defining the ideal customer profile (ICP) by evaluating historical customer data to tailor accounts based on engagement, conversion, and spending rate
- Creating a priority account list based on the ICP and rank based on value and market potential
- Workshopping with Sales team and stakeholders on Account Scoring to ensure incorporation of tribal knowledge, as well as data science
- Establishing a selection process for priority accounts based on ones with high engagement or intent signals to further pipeline generation
- Ensuring Marketing is engaging with the right personas on the buying committee for Sales to pursue when they show interest
Increase the bottom line
When business functions work together, revenue optimizations follow suit. In 2022, about 22% of salespeople said the biggest benefit of Sales and Marketing teams aligning more was closing more deals. Beyond revenue discussions, both departments must shoulder responsibility for revenue objectives to maximize profits.
Although revenue hinges on various factors, alignment between Sales and Marketing remains under leaders’ control. Collaborative efforts yield consistent messaging, expedite sales cycles, improve lead quality, enhance conversation rates, optimize a shared tech stack, and foster superior customer experiences – thus creating brand ambassadors and driving sales through referrals.
Aligning Marketing and Sales proves challenging without synchronized annual operational plans. Leaders must strategize jointly at the beginning of the year, ensuring alignment for long-term success. Regular meetings throughout the year help reinforce goal achievement.
The connected future of Marketing and Sales
With new technologies emerging every day, leaders must constantly communicate to stay in sync on the most precise methods to identify, target, and engage with prospective audiences. Marketing and sales leaders can remain competitive by testing emerging technology regularly and building use cases promptly.
When Marketing and Sales unite, the business thrives – resulting in happy teams, satisfied customers, and a robust bottom line. In today’s digital landscape, interconnectedness is paramount, demanding unified frameworks and approaches across all business functions.
For more expert articles and industry updates, follow Martech News
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jennifer (Jen) McAdams, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Xactly
Jennifer (Jen) McAdams is the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Xactly, the leader in intelligent revenue solutions. Jen has over two decades of experience leading marketing teams within the software industry and currently partners with Xactly’s marketing and sales teams to create and execute integrated strategies that accelerates growth and drives significant impact for Xactly. Prior to Xactly, she was in an advisory CMO role as part of Vista Equity Partners’ Value Creation Team.