alignment

The sales department wants the marketing department to provide more leads. But they want them to be “better qualified”. The real question is, “qualified according to whom?”

A common lament of marketing teams is that they often find themselves acting as a service desk to the sales team. In b2b marketing, it is a consistent dilemma.

If you sense that your revenue engine is under-performing and believe that aligning Marketing and Sales will lead to the necessary transformation you might next ask when is the best time to launch an alignment initiative.

There are some questions that simply shouldn’t be answered.  Consider the fear cast into the hearts of men the world over when they get asked this prickly question: “Does my bum look big in these jeans?”

I recently read another great post on the Marketing Automation Software Guide.  The article entitled, Close the Gaps to Close More Sales with Marketing Automation, was written by Sharon Drew Morgan who has written and spoken passionately about the need for new sales models and processes.

Bob Apollo recently launched a poll on LinkedIn asking: “Which one of the following initiatives has the greatest potential to boost your organisation's sales performance ?” a) Finding more qualified opportunities b) Shortening our average sales cycle c) Increasing average sales win rates d) Qualifying bad deals out earlier e) Improving sales & marketing co-operation

At two different speaking engagements I asked the audiences of marketers if they thought lack of sales and marketing alignment was the biggest obstacle in their company to achieving  revenue growth.  At both events the results were similar. Over 60% agreed that the leading nemesis to greater revenue performance was the lack of alignment between their department and Sales.

According to our benchmark study of 1,400 businesses, one in three of them places alignment between the sales department and the marketing department as the No. 1 priority. Measurement makes a surprising contribution.

If you sense that your revenue engine is under-performing and believe that aligning Marketing and Sales will lead to the necessary transformation you might next ask when is the best time to launch an alignment initiative...

Charles Besondy, President of Besondy Consulting & Interim Management, writes... The attitude your company has and the processes your company employs for its strategic accounts can be an indicator of the degree of alignment between Sales and the rest of the organization...