The alignment of critical information across and within departments gives the sales team better visibility into key marketing interactions and enables marketing to improve the utilization of CRM databases.
A sales and marketing alignment is critical for improved revenue production, company growth, margin increases, customer centricity, and even competitive advantage. But unfortunately, the sales and marketing relationship required to achieve these significant gains does not exist in most companies.
There needs to be an alignment between the sales and marketing team, and it needs to be more than just skin deep. The teams must not only be aligned with each other, but also with the CFO, CEO, and the board. It’s the responsibility of the leadership team to create that broader alignment. As soon as the overall target and growth strategy is in place, sub-goals for specific programs and channels will also fall into place.
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The significant drivers for redefining the sales and marketing relationship include the constant evolution of technology and the change in buying behavior. In this era of digital innovations, marketers are often competing for the attention of potential customers to drive revenue for businesses. CMOs believe the simple solution to this is Account-Based Marketing (ABM).
Getting the Teams on Board
The account-based marketing approach shows targeted clients that the companies pitching to them, understand their business and challenges, and they value them enough to create expert sales and marketing experiences to meet their needs. This effort goes a long way in building strong relationships with the highest valued account prospects. Another advantage of ABM is that it enables the sales and marketing teams to work together efficiently.
According to a study done between HubSpot and LinkedIn, implementing an ABM strategy for a business can help get marketing and sales teams to develop a close bond and get on the same page and encourages a higher level of collaboration.
Common Barriers
Having a marketing and sales team that knows how to collaborate, communicate, and effectively partner on projects, dramatically impacts an organization’s ability to grow and scale their business.
With the new tools available in the market and the changes in buyer behavior, marketing is well suited to create a revenue partnership with sales. If the sales team does not understand this secret weapon they have in a sales and marketing revenue partnership, they will fail to remain competitive in the digital economy.
To create and implement a successful ABM strategy, the sales and marketing teams need to collaborate effectively. Given that ABM allows marketers to measure their ROI with the right tools and metrics at hand, marketers can also help the sales teams by sharing the right insights to drive future strategies to drive sales and conversions.
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A Clear Strategy
The first step to bringing everyone together and ensuring sales and marketing work as a well-oiled machine is to have clearly defined expectations and responsibilities.
Unclear boundaries may create discord, leading to a less than desired collaborative work environment. Business leaders need to ensure they clearly define expectations and responsibilities for the task force. The clearer expectations and obligations are from the start, the easier it will be for the teams to tackle their tasks and work together to bring the strategy to life.
Business leaders need to encourage team building when bringing members from the sales and marketing teams together to work on an ABM strategy. Teams have to foster a sense of familiarity and camaraderie through workshops, team-building exercises, or get-togethers to help the sales and marketing teams get to know each other.
