Marketing and Sales Alignment Problems? Start with This Cheat Sheet

Properly aligning marketing and sales functions can be as difficult as it is important. Getting it wrong results in wasted resources and lost sales. Getting it right starts with an analysis of the product or service’s target market and sales process. This determines what the roles and responsibilities of each function should be.

This graphic is a cheat sheet to help start down the right path. It illustrates two critical factors in marketing and sales alignment and integration.

Buyer Journey: Marathon or Sprint

The first is the length of the buyer journey or sales cycle for the target market. Typically, the longer the buyer journey, the more marketing takes the lead in nurturing prospects. Think about it – if it takes a year or more to make a decision, prospects will not want BDAs and salespeople delivering sales pitches using high-frequency cadences for months on end. Instead, marketing will need to be structured and provided with the resources to nurture prospects with useful, engaging content until they are closer to making a decision.

The Slope of Success

Even more important is clearly understanding the relative contribution marketing and sales make to the sale. A useful way to visualize this is the slope of a line graphically separating the functions. At one end of the spectrum are markets where most of the business is brought in from relationships and referrals. Here the slope will be more downwardly steep, and more resources should be put toward sales, for example in areas such as higher commissions and trade show participation.

At the other end of the spectrum are buyer journeys with little sales involvement, such as products purchased online with minimal sales support. Here, the slope will be shallow, and marketing will need the resources to drive the bulk of business development.

These are just a few simple examples. There’s a lot more to marketing and sales alignment, and each market and organization is unique. But focusing on these two variables is an excellent place to start the process of developing the right mix to grow sales and improve ROI.

For a more detailed review of your marketing and sales alignment, contact us.