Why is Sales and Marketing Alignment Important? Top 5 Benefits

Over the last decade, I have spent tons of time talking to companies in numerous verticals about sales and, more specifically, the importance of customer-facing team alignment and sales performance. Without exception, everyone agrees it’s critical, but in my experience, few have committed to making it happen. Why? Maybe its benefits are unclear. Let’s look at why alignment is important and then discuss the key benefits.

Marketing and sales continue to work in silos. Back in 2016, HubSpot’s State of Inbound report found that only 22% of companies say that their sales and marketing teams are tightly aligned and that another quarter at the opposite end admitted that their teams are rarely aligned or even misaligned. (Source: Kyle Jepson, HubSpot) There have been a lot of improvements since then, but not enough.

Why Sales and Marketing Alignment is Important

Aligning customer-facing teams is a prerequisite for the design and management of a modern customer experience. After all, every touch point needs to be covered. Alignment covers a broad spectrum of areas, from shared goals (preferably monetary ones also) to processes, content, marketing programs, etc.

In the end, however, alignment between key customer-focused functions can be an authentic source of competitive advantage and, business growth.

”Well-aligned teams see 24% faster revenue growth and 27% faster profit growth and a whole bunch of other benefits around customer retention, sales win rates and closing deals. The point is, if your client’s sales and marketing teams aren’t aligned, their company is losing money.” (Kyle Jepson, HubSpot)

What Are the Benefits of Sales and Marketing Alignment?

1. Shared goals and objectives mean that sales and marketing can align around a very important question: What needs to happen for us to reach our goals? Customers benefit from an organisation moving in one direction – in a planned way.
   
2. Good goals are SMART. Actionable, shared goals between marketing and sales are measurable, preferably with metrics that directly impact business. This enables respect between functions and highlights critical interdependency.
3. Shared terminology means the two teams can talk about the things that matter without Webster’s.
4. Aligned processes, mapped based both on the ideal customer’s buying process, as well as the company’s intended, differentiated marketing and selling process, create efficiency at a scale, a notably improved customer experience, as well as, for example, smooth handovers from team to team as customers progress in their buyer’s journey.
5. More efficient use of marketing collateral. I want to bring this up since more and more companies now understand contextual marketing: Many companies turn to marketing agencies that, unfortunately, have little to no understanding of sales. Which materials are needed when, how are they accessed and by whom? Sales focused service providers know the answers. Alignment solves these questions, and customers benefit from materials in the right place, at the right time, from the right instance.

A Sales and Marketing SLA Is a Great Idea

I could continue with the benefits. Suffice it to say, that alignment also means shared commitment to a way of working. Everything leads back to goals, but something that strong companies are doing just now is creating internal SLAs between Customer-Facing Teams. Traditionally, an SLA serves to define exactly what a customer will receive from a service provider. An internal SLA only concerns parties within the organisation, say marketing and sales.

The key question marketers and salespeople commit to in an SLA: What will You promise to do if I promise to do X and deliver as promised?

A simple enough proposition, but when designed right, extremely effective for team alignment. By the way, HubSpot has some really good materials on this outlining how to build one.