As long as I have been in B2B marketing, I can’t think of a time where the importance of marketing and sales alignment hasn’t been stressed.
‘It’s critical for success!”
“Align with Sales to drive the best results!”
“Godliness is marketing and sales alignment.”
I am joking on the last point, but most of you know what I mean.
Yet, it never seems like it’s easy, achievable, or common for many organizations. It tends to be more aspirational like hiking Kilimanjaro.
But that could be changing. With the growing popularity and adoption of account based marketing, I have talked to more companies where the revenue teams actually feel…aligned. Account based marketing requires ongoing collaboration – not just a hand-off from marketing to sales. With ABM, marketing and sales need to work together regarding the accounts to pursue, key tactics and outreach, and even analysis on what is working or not. While not a new idea, it hasn’t always been easy to do – but luckily technology can help. Even if ABM isn’t a strategy your team has adopted – here are few components of it that are worth stealing:
ABM can help you with marketing and sales alignment in these 3 simple ways:
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1) Have a shared ‘system of record’ to track accounts. It does not help coordination if marketing tracks leads but sales tracks accounts – that is not going to help alignment. Make sure you have a way to have a complete account view to track coverage, awareness, and engagement.
2) Help sales prioritize their time. One of the best ways marketing can help sales is showing them the accounts to spend time on. Time is money and you want your sales team to be able to act quickly and sure up their best bets.
3) Make sure marketing and sales initiatives are visible. All teams want to understand what is working and what is not. Make ALL activities visible so revenue teams can see it’s a joint effort (and rarely it’s just ‘one thing’).
Regardless of your strategy, it is essential for revenue teams to be coordinated and orchestrate activity. These tips will help make alignment a reality and not just an aspiration.
