Post by account_disabled on Oct 12, 2023 10:09:44 GMT
The contributor for this guest post is Randi Barshack, CMO of RollWorks, a division of NextRoll.Twenty-two years. It’s not just how long I’ve been married; it’s also how long I’ve spent leading marketing teams working hand-in-hand with sales.And much like a marriage, alignment between sales and marketing takes understanding, empathy, compromise, and creativity. Lots of creativity.Douglas Adams once said, “Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.” Here’s to hoping that you might embrace some of the lessons I’ve learned over the years.1. Matchmake from the bottom-up to influence goal-setting.
We often envision harmony between Phone Number List marketing and sales coming from the top town CMO to CRO. As a marketing leader, it’s not your job to do it all. Chances are others within the org will have more day-to-day contact and overlapping goals so letting the go-to-market magic bubble up may just be what prevents it from toppling over. Having the head of demand gen team up with the head of sales dev is an obvious move since they have shared goals, and both own an area of pipeline.But your IC marketers and IC sellers also need to partner up. Marketing can’t just throw leads over and expect sales to ‘work them’. On the flip side, marketers need to know which pain points customers are trying to solve—something sellers are uniquely qualified to tell them.Marketers should start their quarterly plans by working from sales goals. Deep diving into the current pipeline helps marketing teams decide whether to allocate budget toward closing existing opportunities or driving acquisition.Sales teams should factor marketing programs and roadmap into follow-up. Based on marketing designing programs to meet sales goals, the sales team should stay close to their role in following up in a way that complements marketing efforts.
Down quarters, crappy marketing campaigns, a worthy competitor emerging out of nowhere.Any relationship worth having is much more about day-to-day reality than idealism. As with marriage, sales and marketing alignment comes with its own trials and tribulations.The good news is tough times can bring you closer together—but only when both sides accept influence from one another.For marketers, that means getting intentional. If you design a new pitch deck for sellers, sit in on calls and see whether it works. Don’t hand sellers a generic e-book—or anything they can’t sell with—and expect them to produce.When times get tough, we might have to temporarily pull our attention away from brainstorming the layout of the new resource center and instead, think about programs that might help sales close pipeline (NOW) against that formidable competitor.
If your sales team takes a beating during a particular quarter, rally the marketing team to run a ‘back with a vengeance’-themed SKO. If there’s a recession pending or going on, pull up your britches, dust off the “4 P’s” from your marketing textbook, and revisit pricing, packages, and promotion.
We often envision harmony between Phone Number List marketing and sales coming from the top town CMO to CRO. As a marketing leader, it’s not your job to do it all. Chances are others within the org will have more day-to-day contact and overlapping goals so letting the go-to-market magic bubble up may just be what prevents it from toppling over. Having the head of demand gen team up with the head of sales dev is an obvious move since they have shared goals, and both own an area of pipeline.But your IC marketers and IC sellers also need to partner up. Marketing can’t just throw leads over and expect sales to ‘work them’. On the flip side, marketers need to know which pain points customers are trying to solve—something sellers are uniquely qualified to tell them.Marketers should start their quarterly plans by working from sales goals. Deep diving into the current pipeline helps marketing teams decide whether to allocate budget toward closing existing opportunities or driving acquisition.Sales teams should factor marketing programs and roadmap into follow-up. Based on marketing designing programs to meet sales goals, the sales team should stay close to their role in following up in a way that complements marketing efforts.
Down quarters, crappy marketing campaigns, a worthy competitor emerging out of nowhere.Any relationship worth having is much more about day-to-day reality than idealism. As with marriage, sales and marketing alignment comes with its own trials and tribulations.The good news is tough times can bring you closer together—but only when both sides accept influence from one another.For marketers, that means getting intentional. If you design a new pitch deck for sellers, sit in on calls and see whether it works. Don’t hand sellers a generic e-book—or anything they can’t sell with—and expect them to produce.When times get tough, we might have to temporarily pull our attention away from brainstorming the layout of the new resource center and instead, think about programs that might help sales close pipeline (NOW) against that formidable competitor.
If your sales team takes a beating during a particular quarter, rally the marketing team to run a ‘back with a vengeance’-themed SKO. If there’s a recession pending or going on, pull up your britches, dust off the “4 P’s” from your marketing textbook, and revisit pricing, packages, and promotion.