Macaroni and cheese. Bacon and eggs. Sales and marketing.
All of them should make the perfect team. But somewhere along the line, sales and marketing teams developed deep-rooted differences that need resolution. As organizations grow, this rift widens as the two teams act like two different organizations that plan, execute, and optimize two separate processes for the same buyer.
To develop a deeper understanding, we interviewed 1200+ global sales and marketing professionals - the largest-ever survey on sales and marketing alignment.
Learn from Stephen Pacinelli, Chief Marketing Officer at BombBomb and Brogan Taylor, Head of Enterprise Sales at Freshworks as they discuss the findings and share tactical ways to align the two in order to drive revenue and collaboration.
4. Companies with highly aligned sales-marketing teams
are 3X more likely to grow revenue during a challenging
year (such as 2020) as compared to others.
- The State of Sales-Marketing Alignment Report 2021
5. The State of Sales-Marketing Alignment 2021
The Largest ever survey on Sales & Marketing Alignment
5
Global audience - Sales & Marketing only
C-suite, VPs and Directors
1253 respondents
Markets covered
- US + Canada
- UK
- EU (NL+FR+DE)
- Middle East and Africa
- Asia-Pacific
6. To what degree are your Marketing team KPI’s aligned to
your goals?
Poll #1
a) Totally aligned
b) Somewhat aligned
c) Not aligned at all
7. 90% of respondents think sales and marketing goals
should be aligned, but only 44% believe their teams
are highly aligned.
Key finding #1
8. Alignment in two specific areas—goals and
objectives, and strategy and planning — are most
crucial to improving sales performance.
Key finding #2
9. What is your no.1 requirement from the Marketing team?
Poll #2
a) Better quality leads
b) Visibility into upper funnel activities
c) More Leads
d) Better training around products & messaging
10. Sales #1 demand from marketing is more
visibility into upper-funnel activities.
Marketing’s #1 demand of sales is more visibility
into lower-funnel activities.
Key finding #3
11. “Customer journey” is the second most
frequently discussed topic between Sales and
Marketing.
But, just 35% of professionals think their
company has a 360-degree view of it.
Key finding #4
12. In your opinion, what is the top challenge/roadblock to
facilitate this alignment?
Poll #3
a) Poor communication
b) Broken processes
c) Fragmented customer data
d) Organizational structure
13. The #1 challenge to sales-marketing
alignment is fragmented customer data
Key finding #5
14. Discussion
What are the 3 actionable things sales and marketing leaders
could do to ensure their teams work as one team?
15. Companies spend so long perfecting the handoff. But the
customer doesn't want to be handed off from one function
to the next. The customer wants the entire experience to be
seamless, frictionless, logical, and relevant.
- Jill Rowley, Fund Advisor, Stage 2 Capital
16. Can technology help bring this vision to life?
Linear and visible revenue
attribution
Shared platform - used by both
Sales & Marketing teams
All prospect and customer
interactions in one place
Alignment at the “input level” - goals, metrics, a “shared” vision
Get the process right – very often, the process is broken, and technology only amplifies the problem
Is there a set of capabilities that technology like CRM can offer that can bridge the gap?