I see this all to often
You’ve had a fantastic product, offer and campaign.
You’ve researched it, you’ve imagined every flaw, every onslaught of prejudice and contempt that might disrupt its progressive and brilliant profits that will inevitably be showered upon you in the long run.
It’s a sure thing.
Yet, the launch is a fizzer and all hell breaks loose.
If it weren’t for the popularity of lawsuits, there might even be fisticuffs flying in the office. Everyone is at loggerheads, and there is usually one pivotal reason as to why this is occurring. The finger pointing is unbelievable.
A massive disconnect between sales and marketing.
Sales and Marketing need to work together, a lot like some of the best rugby teams out there. Even if rugby isn’t your cup of tea, we can all recognise that the All Blacks are pretty good at it and are renowned for their teamwork and their cooperation, it’s what makes them great.
Marketing teams and Sales teams are often viewed as two entirely different teams of a company.
If you or your business think this, you would be wrong, and ultimately you would be setting your product up for failure before it even begins. One cannot exist without the other.
Thinking back to our All Blacks team, Marketing is much like the forwards, they set up the work and develop the groundwork of your product in order for it to produce the opportunities that the Sales team (the backs) will use, in order to score the sale, or keeping in line with our analogy, to score the try.
Only through working together, will they both win.
Both links to the chain need to be strong, and naturally, they need to be linked.
It is healthy to have a fair bit of natural competition between the two, but let’s remember, it should be friendly competition.
If one were to resent or truly begrudge the other, then the whole pipeline would be flawed, and the desired flow of results would never be truly realised.
So, are a forward, a workman lock like I was, you may feel as though you are doing all the dirty work, and setting up those (pretty boy) backs to take the glory when in fact it was your foundation building that allowed them that opportunity?
Just like a lock winning a lineout and the wing scoring, know that without you, sales would never reach the potential they had hoped for.
And without them, your product’s potential would simply cease to ever be recognised in the way you had hoped for.
The Sales team are on the frontline, they know the customers, they deal with them day in and day out. Listen to each other, from the start.
The facts are there, and they are real. By truly aligning your Sales and Marketing, you can increase your sales by 20%, if not more.
Aberdeen Research showed that companies that are best-in-class at sales and marketing alignment have reported a 20% growth in annual revenue above those that didn’t have alignment.
And it doesn’t stop there.
So imperative and important are aligned sales and marketing teams, that B2B firms with integrated Sales and Marketing experienced a 24% faster three-year revenue growth, with an even 27% faster three-year profit growth.
Keep in mind, that what we are looking at in regard to aligning your Sales and Marketing, is an expected minimum of 20% increase in sales. There’s more to be had, there’s more to be found, and there’s more that you can do to drive those sales figures up.
Don’t be one of those companies that undervalue the importance of a harmonised Sales and Marketing team. If you leave it to wither you could see a 7% decrease in revenue. Don’t be one of them.
So train as Forwards and Backs, but come together as a team.
Align. Combine. Harmonise. Keep the pipeline flowing. You will see that 20% increase.
KS
