In businesses large and small you will often find that the sales team works independently of the marketing team. Even in a sole trader business where they are one in the same person you will still find that their sales activities are completely separate from what they do in their marketing.
What’s crazy is that the two have the same end goal of generating more sales and business yet both approached completely independently of each other.
What is sales and marketing alignment?
In 2021 many companies are still struggling to align the two most important functions that drive business growth - sales and marketing. Sales and marketing alignment is when your sales and marketing work seamlessly together to create a customer experience that results in them buying from you. Your sales determines the types of leads and customers your marketing works to attract and the content they use to do so. Your marketing data and analytics will inform your sales, along with sharing content, resources, and information about qualified leads.
Our marketing and sales process is intertwined. For example, our social media drives people to our website. If someone visits the website 3 times our sales guys will get in touch with them to see how we might help them. If someone downloads a key piece of content our sales guys will get in touch with them. We don’t wait until they get in touch with us. So the two work in tandem.
When we’re working on a new marketing campaign we do that with the sales team to agree who our ideal customer is, what services they need and value and then we create a customer journey which at different stages the marketing and sales team have contact with them.
The power of sales and marketing alignment
Companies whose sales and marketing are aligned can achieve up to 38% higher sales win rates.
Companies with aligned marketing and sales are 67% more efficient at closing deals.
Marketing and sales alignment leads to 36% higher customer retention.
Misalignment between marketing and sales teams costs companies an average of 10% of revenue per year.
(Stats from Review42.com)
One practical example of sales and marketing misalignment that many companies suffer from is their content marketing. B2B statistics show 60%-70% of all created marketing content remains unused. The overwhelming amount of content marketing is focused on driving more sales and enquiries, not driving good quality leads or closing sales.
81% of companies that beat their revenue goals are “somewhat” or “completely” aligned in their sales and marketing. The question is how closely are yours aligned? How intertwined is your sales and marketing strategy? The one can’t work without the other.
For more information about sales and marketing alignment and to discuss your strategy, email me at ruth@uniqmarketing.co.uk or book a call with me.
