Unified sales and marketing strategies
Sales and marketing are two critical revenue-generating functions that, in theory, should work hand in hand. Unfortunately, as many organisations experience, this is not always the reality on the ground. Sales teams and marketing teams often work independently of each other, and the result is that both functions suffer and key revenue opportunities are lost.
Why is sales and marketing alignment important?
Let’s face it, it’s a jungle out there. Decision makers in the business-to-business (B2B) environment are constantly bombarded with brand messaging from different organisations, and research suggests we see anywhere between 3,000 and 10,000 marketing messages every single day (1). How do you compete in a world where your customer is being subjected to not one message, but thousands of messages, just like yours?
This is complicated further by today’s sales cycle. According to Gartner, B2B buyers only spend 17 per cent of their time meeting with potential suppliers2. Most of their time is spent on independent online and offline research. Unfortunately, this means that, if your sales and marketing teams are not aligned, buyers could be exposed to very different messages about your business. This makes it difficult for decision makers to gain a clear understanding of your business, your products and services, and the value you can provide to their organisation and customers. Ultimately, this means that you could be missing key sales opportunities by not having your sales and marketing teams on the same page.
The complexity of the sales process makes message alignment even more important. A typical buying group for intricate B2B solutions consists of six to ten decision-makers, each equipped with four or five pieces of independently gathered information that needs to be reconciled within the group. Add to that the fact that they also have a range of alternatives and solutions to evaluate and select from, and ensuring you have a clear, concise, and consistent message based on a strategic messaging framework becomes even more critical.
When it comes to complex sales, it is imperative that everyone is on the same page and that marketing and sales teams are aligned to avoid a disconnect between what your business delivers, what marketing messages exist in the market, and what sales teams are saying during the sales cycle.
What is sales and marketing alignment?
Sales and marketing alignment is the strategic collaboration between sales and marketing departments to achieve common business goals, streamline communication, and optimise lead generation and conversion processes. It lets an organisation develop a key messaging framework that can be shared in the market to present a clear, consistent picture of the business and how it supports customers overcome their unique challenges.
When a sales and marketing strategy supports teams working in harmony to share insights, resources, and best practices to target and engage prospects more effectively, the result is a better understanding of customer needs and the business’s ability to solve customer pain points, which drives revenue growth and establishes a competitive advantage in the market.
In short, sales and marketing alignment ensures a consistent brand message strategy, shortens sales cycles, and maximises return on investment (ROI).
There are four reasons why a successful sales and marketing strategy centres on alignment
1. Consistent messaging
At its core, one key message framework means everyone is working with the same information. This embeds clear messaging across your organisation, letting sales and marketing professionals know exactly what they should be saying and when they should be saying it. When both teams share the same conversations with clients, it ensures that the messaging is consistent and cohesive. This helps to build trust with clients and strengthens the company’s brand image.
Over time, this institutional knowledge will grow. This is the foundation of value-based selling because your sales team will move from being ‘order takers’ to trusted advisors.
2. Better customer insights
Marketing builds ideal buying personas. Sales is in-field with prospects every day. Combine this knowledge and sales and marketing teams can share valuable insights about customer preferences, pain points, and motivations. This lets both teams better tailor their strategies to meet customer needs.
Now, when your organisation builds campaigns and then most importantly tracks them, you will create an ever-growing picture of who your ideal prospect is: who needs your solutions the most, who has the budget to pay for them, and who will continue buying from you moving forward? The best messaging strategy should answer all these questions over time.
3. Increase sales and marketing efficiency
By working together, sales and marketing teams can identify and eliminate bottlenecks and other inefficiencies in their processes, leading to improved overall productivity. They can also co-ordinate which clients they approach and how they approach them, avoiding redundancies. This saves time and resources, while increasing your chances of approaching the right customers, because sales and marketing are sharing their insights on who your high value customer accounts are.
Once you’ve established who you should be speaking to, you can craft messaging that speaks directly to their needs and challenges. This is critical; with prospects inundated with thousands of marketing messages a day, it’s important for your messaging to stand out: the more personalised your campaign, the higher your chances of being heard.
4. Convert more leads
Lead generation is important, and it’s the metric that most companies focus on. However, the key to success lies in having qualified leads, rather than simply pushing a large number of leads into your pipeline. When sales and marketing work together, you’re more effectively pre-qualifying leads. This not only reduces how many leads you target, but it also increases your chances of converting them, which is the only metric that matters at the end of the day.
Marketing can generate higher quality leads by understanding the sales team’s requirements and targeting their efforts accordingly. This ensures that sales representatives spend their time on leads with a higher likelihood of conversion.
How to align your sales and marketing strategies
Align your sales and marketing teams on go-to-market messaging for your business with the Key Message Development Program. This framework captures key value pillars for your solutions, outlining why customers should choose you above your competitors. By aligning your proof points to the solution on offer, the Key Message Development Program helps to break down barriers across sales and marketing teams, ensuring consistency across all solution-related assets and conversations.
The outcome of the Key Message Development Program is a single source of truth, clearly articulated and aligned to your business’s key differentiators.
This is the framework that can then be leveraged to create the artifacts that attract customer attention in the market and help sales teams prove value and articulate how your solution solves a key customer pain point.
For more information on the Key Message Development Program, and how Outsource can help your business better align its sales and marketing teams for sustained success, contact the team today.
