No surprises here (and definitely *not* to sound like the regurgitated ChatGPT content that we see all over LinkedIn), but we're living in a very competitive digital landscape. Again, no surprises here, but that means we have to work extra hard to stand out.
Team alignment within your marketing department is something we hammer home about all the time, but it's about cross-functional team alignment too.
Today, we are talking about sales and marketing alignment. Otherwise known as smarketing.*
⚠️ Warning: Here's how to tell if your marketing team is broken (and if you are very much in need of more alignment like this).
*And yes, we're calling it smarketing. And no, there's nothing you can do about it.
What is sales and marketing alignment?
Sales and marketing alignment is the process—or processes—of aligning (go figure) the efforts of sales and marketing teams to create a more streamlined approach to adopting and keeping customers. This alignment is essential for brand consistency and very-much-more effective user experience for your customers.
Then, if you haven't guessed already, smarketing is just 'sales and marketing' smushed together in a really nice, fun way. 🙃
Why sales and marketing alignment is important
We've just mentioned user experience, but there are more benefits of sales and marketing alignment:
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Better communication and positioning
Create a consistent brand voice across all touchpoints so sales can better communicate value propositions that marketing has refined, and marketing can create content that directly addresses sales team feedback. -
Further understanding of your target audience
Make the most of both direct customer interactions that provide invaluable insights, and marketing's data-driven research; this will paint a more complete picture of your target audience—sharing is caring, after all. -
Greater reach of your high-quality content
Develop your content marketing strategy with your sales team effectively distributing marketing content in their email sequences, and marketing creating targeted content or sales collateral based on real sales conversations. -
Increased conversions and revenue
Create a far smoother buyer journey, with reduced friction in the sales process, increased conversion rates, and a greater likelihood of marketing qualified leads (MQLs) becoming sales qualified leads (SQLs). -
Improved marketing and sales experience
Work more efficiently with a (much) better understanding of each team's goals and challenges; this will lead to better resource allocation, less duplicated material or efforts, and more strategic initiatives. -
Improved customer experience
Build trust and reduce confusion within the buyer process or user journey by pushing out more consistent messaging throughout their journey, encouraging an omnichannel experience from first-touch to the moment of purchase. -
Combined insights and analytics
Share data and insights that both sales and marketing teams get to make better-informed (and yes, better data-driven) decisions eg. marketing can track which content drives sales, and sales can provide feedback on lead quality.
How to align sales and marketing teams
Those benefits sound p r e t t y good, right? Here's how to get started with aligning your sales and marketing teams.
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Define shared goals between teams
Create common KPIs that matter to both teams—things like: revenue targets, qualified leads, and customer retention rates. Make sure that both teams understand how their efforts contribute to these goals from the moment their onboarded, and celebrate the wins (both big and small). -
Nail down your target audience
Get those buyer personas documented! Develop them by incorporating both marketing research and sales team feedback, and remember to keep them relevant with frequent updates. -
Streamline your communication channels
Implement regular check-ins or catch-ups, shared platforms, and clear processes for feedback. Make it super easy for teams to share insights and collaborate on projects... did someone say SHARED WORKFLOWS? -
Have a shared understanding of the customer journey
Map out the entire customer journey together, identifying key touchpoints and responsibilities for both teams. This will help everyone understand the role they play in the bigger picture of the business. -
Encourage a single source of truth
Use integrated platforms that both teams can access for customer data, content, feedback, and analytics, ensuring everyone is working from the same information. -
Make time for joint training and regular meetings
Schedule regular cross-team sessions for sharing new product updates, exciting campaigns, current challenges, insights on wins and losses (and other fun stuff), and reasons to celebrate.
The integrated marketing approach (and why we love it)
An integrated marketing strategy takes alignment to whole new levels, ensuring all marketing efforts work together seamlessly within the team—and out of it. This means your content, campaigns, and comms will be coordinated across all marketing channels and teams.
It's not just about sales and marketing alignment; it's about creating a unified strategy that delivers consistent experiences across every touchpoint.
Watch how integrated marketing makes all your lives easier, your work way more fun and enjoyable, and your customers lap it up. What's not to love about that?
A bigger, badder, more integrated team = bigger, badder results.
Get your guide: How to lead a bigger, badder, more integrated marketing team
