Recent research from the Aberdeen Group revealed that sales and marketing alignment is a primary factor determining marketing success and is at the top of the CMO’s agenda for 2017. At OneGTM this is music to our ears and we’re tempted to say ‘not before time’.
The research found that those judged ‘Best-in-Class’ marketing organisations (the top 20% of performers judged across five key marketing metrics) had a significantly greater focus on sales alignment than average or below-average performers. 74% of Best-in-Class organisations were found to have complete or strong marketing and sales alignment, compared with only 45% of the rest. And Best-in-Class organisations are 74% more likely to have the success of their marketing efforts reflected in positive sales performance, compared to only 38% of the lowest performers.
The report concludes that ‘the alignment between marketing and sales is the primary concern for marketing leaders pursuing Best-in-Class performance’.
At OneGTM we’ve been banging on about the importance of sales and marketing alignment for years (until recently we even ran with the tagline ‘The Power of Alignment’). Marketing can’t operate in a vacuum – if it’s to be a driver of business growth then marketers have to take an accountability for the end-to-end go-to-market process.
For some this requires a change in mindset – away from the idea that at some point in the buying journey marketing hands over to sales and its job done, whether or not a sales ever actually results. Best-in-class marketers look at things holistically, and work closely with the sales function to ensure that they have the insights, the knowledge and the tools they need to convert leads to sales. Aberdeen Group’s research found that in Best-in-Class organisations, Sales Enablement was far more likely to be a shared responsibility between sales and marketing functions.
The report also found that Best-in-Class organisations were far more focused on measuring performance and sharing information in a joined up way. For example, the top performers were 2.3x more effective in ‘measurably connecting marketing and sales efforts to revenue’ and nearly twice as effective in ‘utilising data exchange between marketing and sales to inform actions or decisions’.
So the evidence is clear. There really is power in alignment. How aligned are your marketing and sales efforts? If there’s room for improvement then why not give us a call?
If you’d like to discuss how OneGTM could help you, call us on 020 3693 1211.
