Sales and marketing alignment is key to create scalable, repeatable and successful processes. In aligned organizations, sales and marketing teams work together in a coordinated effort to achieve the ultimate goal: increase your revenue.
Aligned organizations achieved an average of 32% annual revenue growth while less aligned companies reported an average 7% decline in revenue – Forrester Research
If your business is growing, you can no longer afford to ignore a misalignment between your sales and marketing teams. We explain the reasons why you should consider merging both teams together.
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1. Customers are changing
It’s no secret that customer purchase behaviors are changing. Today’s customers more in tune with the kind of product or service they consume and they are using the internet to research and consider different options before making a purchase decision. Trust in brands plays an important role in the purchase process today, that’s why more businesses have focused their sales process on the buyer and not on the product.
That’s why it’s critical for marketing and sales teams to collaborate. The marketing team should work to identify the ideal customer and business profile and provide all the information and insights that the sales team needs to engage them. Without this process, your sales team is simply wasting valuable time and energy to chase unqualified leads impacting your revenues.
2. How Misalignment Hurts Your Customers
Have you ever received one of those annoying calls offering you a product or service that you really don’t want or need? This scenario is very common, especially for companies that don’t have alignment between their sales and marketing teams.
43% of B2B marketing decision-makers report that their companies have lost sales as a result of not having necessary supporting content at the right time for a specific customer, and 77% have experienced costly delays, according to Forrester.
Today, more than ever before, customers have the power to choose. So if you don’t have quality and helpful content you’re missing valuable opportunities to attract the right prospects to your pipeline.
3. You’re Wasting Money And Time
What is your conversion rate? How many leads do you have from a campaign? How do you translate this into income? At the end of the day, these are the questions you should ask yourself.
Getting feedback from the marketing and sales team is necessary. Both teams have an important role in the buyer’s journey and enabling good communication between these two departments will streamline the sales process.
If your organization doesn’t have a streamlined process to communicate and provide valuable feedback, the marketing team won’t have the information they need to attract the right prospects and the sales team won’t be able to contact qualified leads and close deals. This breakdown is causing you to lose time and money.
4. Improving the ROI on content creation
Good content creation can produce great results for your business. However, it can also take a lot of time and money before you start to see those results.
With a smart approach to content development, utilizing your marketing team, you can optimize your content to ensure it is fresh and relevant, and reap the SEO benefits that come from providing new content. Your readers will see that the information is current and that you take the time to provide high-quality, relevant posts.
By providing timely, relevant content that engages more prospects, you will be creating Keep more opportunities for the sales team to close a deal. With both departments working together on the same goals you’ll be to see higher returns on a minimal investment.
5. Reduce Customer Churn Rates
We’ve talked about how marketing and sales alignment can help you generate more leads, get more conversions, improve client engagement and increase your ROI. Marketing and sales alignment can also help you retain more of your best customers.
Reducing your churn rate is definitely worth prioritizing. A 5% increase in customer retention can increase your profits by 25% to 95%, according to research from Bain & Company.
Marketing and sales aren’t getting easier. Consumers are becoming more impatient, more demanding, and more independent. The hard truth is that consumers don’t trust businesses anymore.
But don’t panic, there’s a bright side and here’s the thing: your customers are your best growth opportunity.
If your customers are unhappy, you might have something to worry about. But if you’ve invested in their experience, you have better opportunities to create a virtuous cycle and reduce your customer churn rate.
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Keeping your business afloat and constantly growing is hard work, but one thing is true, It’s a job that cannot be done alone. As a starting point, you should put your customers in the center of your strategy and focus on their needs. Ensuring seamless communication between the marketing and sales team is very important for delivering the best customer experience. Create a common set of goals, use real-time data for decision-making, and regularly report on joint progress. Good luck!
