Sales and Marketing alignment According to TOPO Research, the Misalignment creates waste 2. Activation #1 challenge to ABM is Sales and If Marketing embraces ABM without deep alignment This is a new, more modern style of Sales and Marketing alignment (25% of with Sales, the result is a set of isolated tactics that Marketing collaboration that’s better for ABM. render themselves useless. Ad re-targeting, direct In it, you have alignment as described above, companies report it’s a key challenge). mail pieces, and even field events are only but Marketing takes a stronger leadership role, moderately successful without full participation activating Sales at the right time in order to move On the other hand, SiriusDecisions found B2B and enthusiasm from the entire revenue team. the business forward (especially when a human organizations with tightly aligned sales and touch is required). As discussed earlier, Marketing marketing operations grew their revenues 24% On the flip side, when Sales works a high-value acts as an orchestra conductor, gently nudging faster in a three-year period compared to those account without support from Marketing, the result Sales to take the right actions. Or, to use a sports whose teams worked separately. What’s more, is rogue reps generating their own account lists analogy, Marketing acts like the quarterback, these same companies increased their profits and writing their own emails — ultimately creating calling the right plays that prompt the entire 27% faster during the same three-year period. a disjointed customer experience. team to act. Sales and Marketing alignment is clearly essential Three levels of alignment 3. Integration to ABM success, but it’s far from easy to achieve. Many companies suffer from a bad relationship This is the highest level of Sales and Marketing. between Sales and Marketing. Those that do have True integration is when both departments work That’s because, for generations, sales and a ‘functional’ relationship tend to fall into one of together as a single team. Think about a soccer marketing professionals have lived in different three types. team playing perfectly in sync on the field. Players worlds, spoken different languages and been might have distinctly different positions — offense measured by different yardsticks. They view 1. Alignment and defense — but they pass the ball back and forth success differently too: Sales is motivated by quota This is where most companies aspire to today, and in an integrated process. and the bottom line, Marketing by engagement and it’s a great place to start. With Sales and Marketing awareness. Sales rightfully tends to focus on this Alignment, the departments are on the same page, quarter, while Marketing tends to take a longer-term talking to each other and communicating and view. Each brings different reasons for entering their sharing common goals — but still acting professions, and vastly different personalities. Sales independently from each other. It’s a baton hand- is from Mars, Marketing is from Venus. off; each department does its own thing, but in a coordinated fashion. In ABM, it can’t work that way. 149