Why Businesses Should Work Harder To Sync Marketing And Sales
Developing a strong relationship between an organization’s sales and marketing teams has been a “Holy Grail” for many of us for decades.
In 2006, Harvard Business Review reported that each “undervalues the other’s contributions,” with few firms making “serious overtures towards analyzing and enhancing the relationship between these two critical functions.” In November 2023, the lack of alignment between sales and marketing was reportedly the number one reason for revenue loss of more than $1 trillion, according to a SuperOffice report.
Almost two decades after the Harvard Business Review’s report, the pipes are still disconnected. In fact, it’s not still getting nearly the attention it deserves. When hiring talent, for example, I have found that candidates often do not raise this fundamental relationship when interviewing. Candidate questions should include: Is the relationship between marketing and sales positive, neutral or negative? How often do they meet? What’s the tone of the dialogue?
So Many Tools, So Little Time
Of course, since 2006, technology has changed beyond recognition and fundamentally altered how people, both consumers and businesses alike, make buying decisions. Through artificial intelligence, notably machine learning, marketers and salespeople can access insights gleaned from big data that have impacted the buying process.
Marketers leverage customer data to provide a personalized experience adapted to where the customer is in the purchasing process, or “funnel.” Sales teams can harness this data for locating, prospecting, reporting and lead generation, ultimately reaching out to more leads in less time with messaging they can feel confident will resonate and prompt action. Deep learning has revolutionized how brands interact with consumers and how consumers relate to brands.
With more opportunity than ever to create meaningful leads and campaigns, why are our two segments seemingly so well-equipped yet still struggling to meet, let alone exceed, our combined potential?
Misalignment And Miscommunication
Despite this period of innovation, the tools that marketing and sales functions deploy to aid communication between themselves seem to need to catch up.
From my experience, the technology tying the sales and marketing functions together could be faster, simpler and rooted in an agreed understanding of each function’s importance and areas of authority. Sometimes, we see software that’s not effectively integrated or connected, leading to inefficiencies and data discrepancies.
As marketing and sales are both people-focused functions, at their most basic, these tools fundamentally capture details that assist human interactions that should educate, inspire and prompt action. If we do not integrate or use our technology, platforms or processes correctly, both will fall at the first hurdle and prevent teams from realizing their potential.
I have often heard from my counterparts that sales leaders regularly mention reverting to Excel as more appealing than struggling with some existing tools. Many still depend on outdated software that cannot meet customers’ ever-changing needs. These tools can be ineffective at data aggregation, analysis and insights, creating huge silos of data, so the whole is less than the parts.
According to the Harvard Business Review, more than 30% of marketersexperience average-to-no returns on their online and digital marketing investments, and only 40% report that systems are in place to track customer engagement to inform their marketing road maps. If marketing and sales teams rely on separate data sources and systems, it can result in a lack of visibility into each other’s activities and performance metrics and, ultimately, ineffective campaigns.
In parallel with tech, the corporate culture also matters. How do these two teams function alongside one another? A study by HubSpot found that only 30% of sales professionals said sales and marketing are strongly aligned and, citing Strategic ABM research, 76% of marketing teams need guidance on how to best align with sales.
The two business segments operate in isolation, misaligned. Worse, a relationship of blame appears to have been founded and encouraged, whereby sales blame marketing for generating unsuccessful leads, and marketing blame sales for not executing the leads generated.
Are We Simply Asking Too Much?
The crux of the problem is that marketing and sales teams focus on different stages of the funnel. Marketing focuses on generation and nurture at the top and middle of the funnel, and qualification transitions a nurtured lead to sales toward the bottom for closure.
Once again, we can view this through two different lenses: technology and culture.
As CMOs, it’s our responsibility to work with our counterparts in sales to overcome these barriers. When sales and marketing collaborate successfully, they can create content that aligns with each step of the customer journey and anticipates hurdles at every turn of negotiations with a prospect.
Unsurprisingly, the foundation of successful sales and marketing alignment starts with choosing the correct software and using it repeatedly so that it becomes second nature. You must select your tools wisely and stop over-complicating the process. Keeping things as simple as possible will help you achieve an efficient and effective alignment.
To develop a collaborative culture focused on continuous improvement, we also need to encourage the sales and marketing teams to agree on a buyer persona, set shared goals and objectives and identify KPIs. Eighty-five percent of businesses believe, according to Ruler Analytics research, that having the same goals and KPIs can help achieve sales and marketing alignment. It sounds simple, yet so often remains out of reach, even by some of our industry’s most seasoned professionals.
It’s essential to fix fundamental problems beneath other issues and help ensure that communication, collaboration and the transition of knowledge and leads generated from marketing to sales are seamless and prevent mismatched communication from one function to another. Instead, both functions will channel their energies toward one unified funnel.
By integrating sales and marketing, companies can manage a greater volume and higher quality of new leads and nurture them together throughout the journey. Organizations with aligned sales and marketing functions achieve 24% faster revenue growth and 27% quicker profit growth over three years. In other words, with sales and marketing working as one, you can boost your profits and drive progress.
Metadata: Originally published on Forbes.com on 13 Februdary 2024.
