Stars aligning may be less rare than sales and marketing aligning, but marketing experts have ideas for helping sales and marketing work together.
A few weeks ago, I posted a question on LinkedIn’s BtoB Marketing Group, which I highly recommend you join. The question was “Why don’t marketing and sales get along?” There were a few snippy comments (one of which read: “Marketing types thing they know everything; Sales types think they are the greatest thing”), but most were quite thought provoking.
One commenter, the GM of marketing at a high-tech hardware manufacturer, summed up marketing and sales differing perspectives:
A certain amount of friction between Sales and Marketing is inevitable, and can actually be a healthy thing if it’s not taken too far. Sales will typically be focused on 30-60-90 days out, while Marketing is looking at 60+, so the needs and priorities are naturally different. A friendly and respectful relationship is vital for a smooth-running operation. But for Marketing to do their job effectively, it will sometimes not sit well with the short term needs of their sales team.
There may not be many Kumbaya sessions between marketing and sales, but many of the respondents to my question saw the need for building greater trust. A marketing director for a cinema advertising agency said this:
One thing we’re doing is really listening to what sales wants from marketing—the top three things—and then we’re going to execute against those requests. If my marketing team takes the step to trust the sales team, our hope is that then the sales team will trust us. In order to earn that trust, we must first give that trust.
Good idea. A little “you scratch my back, I scratch yours” never hurts. Another commenter, a business-to-government marketing consultant, shared an idea that I think could work wonders in getting health care B2B marketing and sales people working more closely:
“In one very successful organization I worked with, marketing bonuses are tied to sales goals. They communicate well!”
A practice leader at an interactive marketing agency offered a more structural idea for aligning sales with marketing:
The most effective sales environments that I’ve been in are where sales and Marketing report to the same structure and are truly teamed. The further apart they get in the organizational structure, the more potential for conflict. The closer they are tied together in terms of performance goals, the better it works.
What do you think about these ideas? Have you seen other ideas for improving sales/marketing alignment that have worked well?
