The post-pandemic era has created unique challenges for marketing and sales teams unfamiliar with remote work and those who traditionally relied on face-to-face interaction with customers. With marketing under more pressure to impact revenue and sales needing new ways to approach customers, we can safely assume the solution resides in better, faster, stronger sales and marketing alignment and collaboration to support business growth.
A new pulse survey from SugarCRM reveals plenty of room for improvement to align sales and marketing teams. Read on to see our findings!
Overall, more than 1 in 5 surveyed sales pros and marketers characterize their Sales and Marketing teams as “Not Aligned.”
This demonstrates a call for sales and marketing to take a “back-to-basics” approach—simply meeting regularly, conducting shared goal-setting, and practicing better communication.
Marketing teams should work with sales to define what qualifies a lead for marketers versus salespeople, hand-off processes, lead scoring rules, and keep them up-to-date on what marketing content is being worked on.
On the other hand, the sales team can provide marketing with customer insights as they interact directly with leads and customers. Gathering sales feedback can help companies conduct deeper customer research and gain an edge among competitors.
Overall, 1 in 3 (33%) sales pros and marketers polled say their Sales and Marketing teams have “Great Alignment.”
Some 59% say the benefits of being aligned include improved win rates and a more robust sales pipeline—a win-win for both teams, and the company. Organizations looking to grow should analyze how their sales and marketing teams get along as soon as possible.
Additionally, alignment helps close deals faster, which means an excellent foundation for your company’s growth. To start with, your sales and marketing teams should share common KPIs, short and long-term objectives, and have a clear understanding of where there are gaps in enablement.
Sales and Marketing have different opinions on what it means to be aligned.
While 20% of sales say they are perfectly aligned with marketing, only 2% of marketers say they experience perfect alignment.
The groups have different opinions of what it would take to improve the situation. Marketers feel the root cause of misalignment is from not being incentivized by the same goals–while sales believe improved communication would do the trick.
Moreover, the enabling technology supporting sales and marketing processes throughout the customer lifecycle is often siloed, limiting visibility, efficiency, and visibility across the customer journey.
Aligned companies are more adaptable to new technologies. 38% of aligned teams say they need even more potent sales and marketing technology to take their performance to the next level.
One of the key ways to align? Integrating CRM and marketing automation, the tools that each team lives within is essential because it ensures data flow between teams, a common view of customers, and actionable sales intelligence. Sales teams can get involved in defining lead qualifications and reasoning why a lead has been qualified and assigned to them. The integrated platforms empower sales by highlighting and alerting them of prospect and customer key activities and marketing touchpoints via a convenient timeline view.
Plus, marketing can create personalized experiences for prospects and customers by leveraging sales force automation data to segment prospects. Detailed segmentation enables the precise allocation of marketing efforts towards areas with the greatest revenue potential.
You Are Better Together
When both marketing and sales teams join forces, they are 67% more efficient when closing deals. Improved communication, goal-setting, and integrating your CRM and marketing automation solutions are the winning formula to ensure your sales and marketing success.
Want to know more about how technology enables marketing and sales teams to unite around a single revenue to increase productivity and company growth? Take a look at these guides:
- CRM and Marketing Automation Integration Simplified – What should you expect from a “seamless integration?” As experts in both CRM and marketing automation, we put together this simplified eBook to help you understand.
- Dismantling the Silos for Effortless CX – Learn how aligning your sales, marketing, and customer service teams can unlock the key to providing amazing customer experience (CX).
*This article was originally taken from SugarCRM.
