Aligning Marketing and Sales Teams in B2B Companies

For a number of companies, if the marketing and sales teams are not aligned, it creates big revenue problems.

There are several things that can lead to misalignment between marketing and sales, including not tracking how effective a piece of content is with the audience, spending time on unproductive prospects, and salespeople not knowing how to cater to the audience.

In addition, with the sales and marketing funnels becoming more convoluted, it’s easy for the two departments to misalign in a company.

Traditionally, marketing departments have been in charge of generating leads, while sales departments account for the revenue. But this creates a very different point of focus with both departments, which can result in a disparity between their strategies.

Goals

Today’s digital era means that companies can’t see the digital space as just another promotional channel, and instead have to build the entire brand experience in the space.

That means marketing and sales teams need to share the same goals, which are improving customer experience and driving revenue for businesses.

Lead generation is the key element to brand success in the digital space, which has subsequently created a division between marketing and sales departments.

Fortunately, with changes in consumer expectations and the evolution of various technologies, these goals have come together again, even if they’re not completely aligned yet.

Consumers these days expect real-time sales and marketing engagements from B2B companies, and when both departments are aligned on the same goals, it can generate revenue for a business.

To improve their efforts, companies should ensure that both departments are also aligned on specific KPIs, such as upsells, generated interest, and annual recurring revenue.

Plans and Strategies

When a company details its revenue and KPI goals, the marketing and sales departments can finally start collaborating on their strategies and plans for deployment.

To ensure that both departments are in alignment, they should meet weekly, and discuss the goals and break them down into manageable steps.

Through collaboration and communication, everyone should be made to understand what they need to do to ensure all the processes are working together.

Tools

Lastly, to bridge the gap between sales and marketing departments, companies can use tools and technologies that automate certain tasks the departments need to do together.

That can mean automating tasks such as enrolling consumers for events, or sending out personalized emails – essentially automating tasks that are meant to help both departments improve their outreach efforts and generate better leads.

Ronn Torossian is the CEO and founder of NY based PR firm 5W Public Relations. Torossian is also the founder of the Ronn Torossian Foundation, and a lifelong New Yorker.

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