How sales and marketing work together to drive growth

Trinity Nguyen, Vice President of Marketing user gem.

It’s no secret that sales and marketing teams don’t always get along. We often pursue different metrics and goals and keep working towards different outcomes. Their overarching goal is to make the company successful, but misalignment between the two teams can negatively impact the company’s success. How can sales and marketing work together when they are working toward different goals?

Revenue alignment allows your sales and marketing teams to work together towards the same goal of increasing revenue. Rather than spinning wheels separately, each team works together to achieve the company’s goals in unison. Aligning revenue not only reduces friction for both teams, but it also increases the return on investment (ROI) of your sales and marketing efforts.

Learn why revenue alignment is a top priority for business-to-business (B2B) companies this year and how to stay aligned and stay aligned to meet your ambitious revenue goals. ) for practical tips you’ll learn. .

What does revenue adjustment mean?

Before we get to the point, let’s talk about what I mean when I use the term “revenue adjustment.” It’s simple in nature. Aligning revenue means recognizing that everyone is working towards the same goal of increasing revenue.

When sales and marketing aren’t aligned, the relationship between the two teams looks like this:

• Conflicts due to conflicting priorities.

• Various incentives for performance.

• Inconsistent efforts working towards different goals.

The marketing team is expected to generate leads and pipeline, and the sales team is expected to close deals. When prospects don’t match your sales team’s expectations, and revenue won doesn’t align with lead acquisition, the two teams can feel at odds with each other.

For sales and marketing that is When aligned, the relationship looks like this:

• Higher conversation rate and more wins.

• It’s easier for sales reps to close deals.

• Marketing to generate higher quality leads.

Instead of each team working in its own silo to achieve its own goals, teams are working together to perform at a higher level. And in an economic environment that makes sales and marketing jobs more difficult, alignment is more important than ever to a company’s success.

But how can these two teams get along?

Use these three actionable tips for achieving revenue alignment.

What does it take to achieve revenue integrity? It’s not always easy. Above all, it takes organizational commitment to create and maintain alignment between sales and marketing. As VP of Marketing for a B2B Software as a Service (SaaS) startup, I know the importance of working closely with sales to create a better environment for winning new business, and I have had several I learned an important lesson from

Here are three best practices I’ve learned to keep sales and marketing aligned from day one and stay aligned.

1. Find the best buyers together.

This may sound obvious in theory, but in practice it is very difficult. How often do sales team members really know what marketing team members are working on (or vice versa)?

You may be aware of this scenario. The marketing department identifies the ideal customer profile (ICP) and creates a target account list based on that ICP. Teams advertise to those accounts and generate leads within ICP. But the next quarter, the marketing team realized that only half of the targeted accounts were sales reps.

this is a typical case Earnings Misalignment.

To avoid this discrepancy, sales and marketing should define ICPs together. More importantly, stick to the ICP. Teams should ensure that neither party decides to deviate from the common path to achieve revenue goals. “I just happened to close company X” or “I saw a strange sign and want to sell to this new industry” is not allowed!

2. Engage prospects on all channels throughout the buying process.

Prospects can be reached through a variety of touch points, including sales (direct mail, LinkedIn messages, phone calls) and marketing (social media, Google search ads, promoted posts). At every touchpoint, the team helps prospects get a complete picture of their solution or product. Businesses thrive when marketing works effectively with outbound outreach.

Are your sales and marketing teams sharing the same story and using the same messaging across all touchpoints? You will be seen and known almost everywhere your prospects are.

This is something that sales and marketing can and should coordinate in close collaboration. By working together, both teams can work together to reach the same target accounts at the right stage using the right nurturing approach.

3. Adjust the success metrics for each team.

Overall, sales leaders aren’t interested in attribution, only revenue generated. Marketing leaders, on the other hand, care about attribution because it validates their work. However, the buying process is not truly linear. So there can be no truly perfect attribution. It’s just a snapshot of the discrepancies that cause friction between sales and marketing teams.

What’s the best practice here? In short, the sooner the marketing and sales teams define and agree on the metrics that matter most, the easier it will be to stay aligned going forward.

What Revenue Alignment requires teams to stop focusing on different success metrics that lead to attribution wars and focus on the metrics that matter more to the success of both teams together.

Join forces for stronger results.

Selling never gets easier, marketing never gets easier. Both teams put up an uphill battle for attention (regardless of market conditions) and revenue each year. The way teams are successful now and in the future is by aligning their efforts and metrics to achieve better results together.

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