Creating Alignment
alignment |əˈlīnmənt|
(noun) an arrangement in a straight line, or in correct or appropriate relative positions.
To ultimately maximize the effectiveness of both the sales and marketing disciplines requires proper alignment. Like any well-tuned machine, once sales and marketing are working together behind shared goals, common processes and being measured by common metrics, positive results can be realized.
Sales and marketing must work toward a common purpose, but all too often they do not. In an article published in the Harvard Business Review, Jul-Aug 2006 entitled "Ending the War Between Sales and Marketing" authors Kotler, Rackham and Krishnaswamy revealed the following research findings.
When sales and marketing are working together:
- Sales cycles are shortened;
- Sales forecasting accuracy is increased;
- Market-entry costs go down, and
- Cost of sales is reduced.
However, when sales and marketing work at cross-purposes, we hear words like this from executives:
- "Our sales figures rarely are close to sales forecast."
- "Marketing sends us few truly qualified leads."
- "Sales does a lousy job of closing the leads we send them."
- "If things go wrong, or results are disappointing, we find a lot of finger pointing going on with both sides."
- "Our sales people are frequently complaining about the collateral materials supplied by marketing, and 9 times out of 10, the collateral finds its way into the circular file."
- "The heads of sales and marketing rarely meet to discuss upstream issues such as product development, product improvement, voice of the customer."
