How Aligning Marketing and Sales Increases Business Revenue
Aligning marketing and sales increases business revenue in important ways. When both teams work towards driving more sales better profitability can be generated as well. When they work in sync, it allows the business to see improved marketing ROI, sales productivity, and overall growth. The company’s culture can be strengthened when these two important functional areas collaborate.
Substantial economic growth is predicted in the next few years as we better manage the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, aligning the sales and marketing teams offers the biggest opportunities to enhance your business performance. It can deliver organizational efficiencies that flow to the bottom line, creating a more profitable business.
Collaborative teams can produce creative inspiration that opens new avenues for growth. And aligned sales and marketing teams, which often have been at odds with each other, create a better workplace, which in turn strengthens company culture.
The Aberdeen Group claims in a CMO’s Agenda report that by aligning sales and marketing department a business can (Source):
- Generate 32% higher revenue
- Retain 36% more customers
- Achieve 38% higher win rates
Covid-19 has affected businesses in many ways. In some cases, the buyer’s journey has changed, perhaps due to changes in the purchasing process, or there has been a shift in the values and mindset of today’s buyer. What are the new pain points? This is a critical time to review your buyer persona, the sales process, and marketing goals and priorities to align them to this new economy that is emerging.
Companies that do not align these two teams witness:
- Wasted budget & resources
- Annual revenue stagnates or, worse, declines
- Increased cost per acquisition
These are urgent reasons to prioritize aligning your sales and marketing teams!
More Benefits of Aligning Sales and Marketing
1. Greater Sales Productivity & Deal Win Rate Increases
Generally, the marketing team’s goals are more strategic in orientation and address branding and market share objectives. In contrast, the sales teams are focused on revenue growth and specific sales targets. There can be tension between the two groups or clashes when sales do not get what they need from the marketing team, or worse, deem them irrelevant.
Aligning sales and marketing can represent a challenge if they have not worked closely together in the past. However, when the marketing team allocates resources to creating content for each stage in the buyer journey, the sales team are given a highly valuable resource in the form of the right kind of content to close sales.
For example, if a potential customer has a question about your company’s after-sale service, the sales rep can send him a blog post or case study that communicates in detail and solves the customer’s query.
Such intelligent responses play a direct role in minimizing the time a sales rep is spending in nurturing the lead. Additionally, the high-value content can help promote more buy-in at the lead’s organization too.
2. The Marketing Team Delivers Better Budgetary ROI
Healthy and regular communication with Sales teams ensure better and productive content from the Marketing team. Sales reps are the most informed group when it comes to customer’s challenges and experiences. Thus, customer insights from them allow Marketers to create specific, conversion targeting marketing collaterals. The marketing team delivers high-impact resources.
In this internet age, customers are constantly in touch with brands and businesses before buying any product or service from them. Businesses cannot afford clunky handoffs and half-baked communication which leaves a sour customer experience and lost revenue.
Marketing and Sales alignment creates a seamless experience for customers. It results in more effective marketing activities, increased revenue, shorter sales cycles, and improved conversion rates. All these benefits translate into improved organizational effectiveness which is good for both top and bottom-line measures.
How to Align Sales and Marketing in Your Business
1. Align Both Sales and Marketing Goals to Revenue Goals
The first step is to insist that both groups work toward common goals. That means the marketing team’s KPIs should include some of the sale targets that the sales teams are being measured against.
For example, one end goal of both teams is to win new sales faster by pushing leads further down the sales funnel. When both teams agree on performance indicators that track their efforts, they foster better collaboration. This way they also address each other’s problems which is impossible in working isolated.
2. Gain Agreement on the Sales Funnel & Priorities
Both teams define the sales funnel differently. To align sales and marketing, they need to agree on the stages of the sales process as well as define what each stage shall comprise. This enables them to understand their role in the sales process and how to convert those leads.
3. Gain Agreement on the Definition of a Lead
Sales teams often are of the view that the marketing team needs to send them a better quality of leads, while marketers believe that the sales team should work harder in following leads up.
To align the two teams, both teams need to have a common understanding of a lead. Leads can be divided into 3 types – Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs), Sales Accepted Leads (SALs) and Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs).
Click to learn more about the Lead Generation Process
4. Strategize Together
It is imperative that sales and marketing leaders come together to agree on marketing and product goals, as well as the priority of specific customers’ (or product group) needs. They need to evaluate the present market scenario and put in place the best strategy for these agreed goals.
This can be achieved either by setting up regular meetings digitally or on-site. Gathering everyone also allows team members to share their concerns, confusions, experiences, and their learnings from which everyone can understand and deliver better results. When both teams work together, it guarantees better conversion.
5. Lead, do not Preach
One of the most effective ways to align marketing and sales together is by making sure that top leaders stay aligned and the teams are sure to follow by example. Team leaders should meet often to track goals progress, explore opportunities for growth, and offer feedback. It shows their teams that collaboration is not only expected but is a norm in the company.
Organizing activities together and celebrating cross-functional wins may sound basic but they can go a long way in building a highly successful and effective culture.
Start Aligning Sales and Marketing Today
Aligning Marketing and Sales together is a long-term strategy that will deliver lasting rewards to your company. Well-aligned Sales and Marketing teams generate more leads and revenue. This, in turn, improves the ROI of your marketing activities and significantly reduces customer acquisition costs.
At Asset Digital Communications, we work with our client’s sales and marketing teams. We help bridge any gaps between the two departments, to get the best out of each. Getting the two departments working together can be a formidable organizational challenge. Introducing our team encourages closer collaboration and provides exciting new energy in reaching sales and marketing goals.
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