Benefits of Alignment
Sales and marketing share the same goals, but often seem disconnected. Marketing may feel sales doesn’t appreciate their efforts, while sales believes marketing is out of touch with revenue drivers. These misunderstandings slow progress and hurt the business.
Aligning sales and marketing is no longer optional—it's essential for success. When these teams work together, the overall benefits include:
- Increased revenue
- Improved customer satisfaction and retention
- Streamlined operations and efficiency
Understanding the Disconnect
Sales and marketing often have different priorities. Marketing might be laser-focused on generating leads and building awareness, while sales is working hard to close deals and hit revenue targets. These separate goals, reinforced by differing compensation structures, create silos.
Sales is typically compensated on their ability to close deals, while Marketing is often measured by lead volume or engagement metrics. It’s easy to see how silos can form, with each team pulling in its own direction.
Plus a lack of communication leads to missed opportunities, wasted effort, and lost revenue.
Setting Shared Goals
A unified approach starts with shared goals. Instead of debating who gets credit for wins, shift to a "win together" mindset. Revenue is the ultimate shared goal.
Sales and marketing can collaborate by breaking down overall revenue targets. Marketing drives pipeline and conversions, while sales closes deals and improves win rates. Both contribute to the same outcome—revenue growth.
Beyond new business, both teams should not forget about customer retention and relationship-building to ensure long-term success.
Strategies for Staying in Sync
Getting sales and marketing aligned isn’t a one-time thing—alignment requires ongoing collaboration. Here’s how to maintain it:
- Constant Communication: Ongoing communication between marketing and sales leadership ensures both teams stay aligned on goals, strategies, and challenges.
- Shared Tech Stack: Using the same tools (e.g., CRM, Sales Engagement) ensures access to shared data, avoiding confusion on key metrics like engagement, intent, and outreach.
- Agree on the Ideal Customer: Defining the same Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) ensures marketing generates qualified leads, and sales targets the right prospects likely to convert.
- Measure Success Together: Move beyond attribution debates and track how both teams contribute to pushing deals forward.
Influ2 Sneak Peek
To keep our sales and marketing teams focused on shared goals and reduce unnecessary meetings, we’ve built a self-service approach that empowers sales to take control of their opportunities while staying aligned with marketing.
Here's how our ABM program ensures alignment:
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Self-Service Ad Journeys for Sales: AEs can add audiences directly into the ad journey through Salesforce, aligning marketing content with sales' revenue-driving efforts. By syncing contacts from Salesforce, both teams engage prospects at the right time without sales needing to rely on marketing for every step.
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Targeted Ad Flow Based on Opportunity Stages: Our ad flow follows each opportunity’s progress, with targeted content supporting sales at every stage, keeping both teams aligned on the shared goal of closing deals:
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Stage 1: Trust and Social Proof: At this stage, both teams work together to build trust, marketing provides social proof while introducing the AE as their trusted advisor, setting a foundation for deeper engagement.
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Stage 2: Product Teasers and AE Video: Sales and marketing collaborate here by introducing product capabilities. A personalized AE video showcases product capabilities, helping prospects see how our solution fits their needs.
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Stage 3: Product Education and Long-Form Content: As prospects become more invested, in-depth resources like case studies and guides help prospects make informed decisions, driving both teams toward closing deals and growing revenue.
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This approach ensures sales and marketing target the same contacts and stay aligned, focusing on driving opportunities through the funnel toward revenue—without constant meetings.
Wrapping it Up
Sales and Marketing alignment isn’t just a buzzword—it’s critical to any business’s success. Leaders in both functions should set shared goals, communicate consistently, and use integrated tools to stay connected. The payoff? Increased revenue, customer loyalty, and improved teamwork.