2012

TOP
TRENDS

IN MARKETING & SALES

ALIGNMENT

Overview
According to Aberdeen Research, successful sales and marketing
alignment can result in a 20% average growth in annual revenue.
Misaligned organizations, on the other hand, can experience an
average 4% decline.1 Other research shows that businesses with
the greatest degree of alignment close 38% more proposals and
lose 36% fewer customers to the competition.2
Organizations that have successfully aligned sales and marketing
work as a group toward a common goal by using technologies and
processes to both generate demand and close business.
Alignment can be difficult to achieve, however. Marketing often
complains that Sales isnt following up on leads, while Sales
complains that Marketing doesnt deliver good leads. For true
alignment, Sales needs to understand that Marketing is not sales
support and, conversely, Marketing needs to understand that
Sales is not just a front line delivery tactic.
Perhaps the greatest obstacle to achieving alignment starts at the
top. CEOs and top-level executives often regard marketing as a
reactive cost center, not a proactive demand creator.
Certainly CEOs and VPs must wear multiple hats, but that can
result in a general focus on internal operations. Shifting to the
proactive, customer-focused viewpoint of todays forward-thinking
marketers, however, should be a top priority.
In addition, CEOs and VPs need to train their senior management
teams to put customers above all else. Innovation, product quality
and lowering costs are all important to meeting planned business
objectives, but marketing and sales alignment comes from a
shared agreement that the overall business goal is to win new
customers and keep existing customers--and all areas of specialty
within the company must work toward this end.

1 Source: Sales and Marketing Alignment: Collaboration + Cooperation = Peak Performance,

Aberdeen Research, 2010.
2 Source: MathMarketing Alignment Benchmarking Study, MathMarketing.com.

The Leader-to-Leader Institute

(formerly the Peter F. Drucker
Foundation) cites morphing
markets and hyper-competition as
the two main reasons CEOs and
top-level executives should place
marketing ahead of all else.
Morphing Markets: Traditional
marketing methods are no longer
effective--they cant reach todays
mobile consumers. CEOs and top
executives must carefully watch
and continually adjust marketing
efforts to match ever-changing
hybrid technologies, fast-changing
business strategies and new
business models.
Hyper-competition: Todays
technology gives more companies
direct access to your customers
and prospects. Product
differentiation is more difficult
to achieve. A unique, compelling
message and solid branding
practices are critical in helping
companies rise above the noise of
the competition. This begins with
marketing.

Where to Start
Marketing and sales alignment begins with stakeholder agreement
and shared definitions and recognition of technologys role in
alignment. When marketing and sales agree upon definitions and
use the same tools and technology to generate demand and close
deals, positive results abound.
Stakeholder Agreement and Shared Definitions
A complete and consistent agreement on the definitions and
measurements of success is the foundation for sales and
marketing alignment and will remove a major hurdle in reaching
full revenue potential. As a result of ever-changing environments,
human resources and products/services, its critical for
organizations to revisit these definitions at least twice per year to
ensure consistency.
Though the task is large, interdepartmental agreement of these
definitions--and a restructured compensation plan that reflects
the shared overall goal of winning new business and keeping
existing business--reinforces CEO and top executive commitment
to customer focus and significantly impacts internal thought
processes, behavior and accountability on a daily basis.
Technologys Role in Alignment
Unfortunately, technology companies tend to oversell fix-alls to
marketing departments looking to make fast and easy changes.
Though technology is not the answer, it is a major part of the
solution.
With stakeholder agreement of definitions, companies can move
on to the technological hub that will house this information,
enable sales with powerful selling tools, automate marketing
campaigns, allow for proactive adjustments and ultimately
become a precise financial forecasting system.
Aberdeen Research states 84% of the best in class organizations
empower marketing with access to a CRM tool.3 The quality
of information from a CRM tool, and the lead generation, lead
scoring and lead nurturing capabilities of marketing automation
platform have a significant impact on sales and marketing
alignment.
3 Source: Sales and Marketing Alignment: Collaboration + Cooperation = Peak Performance,
Aberdeen Research, 2010.

Sales and marketing alignment

begins with a clear, shared
definition of the following:
1. Prospect
2. Cold lead
3. Warm lead
4. Hot lead
5. Opportunity
6. Sales-ready lead
7. The stages of the sales cycle

These technologies allow campaign leads to be funneled to the

right sales rep, give them the information they need to bring the
lead to close, and house behavior and persona data and metrics
relevant to all future campaigns. Reporting and inter-departmental
communication of this information makes it easier for every
discipline within the organization to adjust their daily tactics to
stay on a customer-focused goal.
The Importance of Sales Enablement
Another ongoing trend that lends itself to truer marketing and
sales alignment is industrys increasing recognition of the
importance of sales enablement.
Sales enablement is the practice of supporting sales with
key value messaging, product information and detailed lead
characteristics, allowing them to have the most relevant, timely
and efficient conversation with their prospects.
Throughout the entire sales cycle, marketing is adding new
targets, acknowledging their relevance, uncovering suspects,
driving leads into the pipeline, nurturing them to maturity, handing
them off to the appropriate sales executive, receiving feedback
and adjusting information and tactics to ensure more success in
future campaigns.
Again, shared definitions and proper use of technology are
critical to sales enablement, allowing marketing to provide true
information on where prospects lie in the sales cycle, trends in
their digital behavior, and their response to emails and other
communications. The ability for marketing to communicate such
rich history--and for sales to accept and efficiently use it--makes
all customer and prospect engagements more relevant and timely.

Sales and marketing alignment

will ultimately increase overall
growth rates, improve close
rates and decrease customer
abandonment.
Strategy: Sales and marketing
groups must focus on the same
goal--to keep existing customers
and win new business.
Top-down culture: CEO and toplevel management must implement
a top-down culture that recognizes
marketing as a proactive demand
creation center.
Stakeholder agreement and
shared definitions: A complete
and consistent agreement on the
definitions and measurements
of success is a foundational
characteristic of sales and
marketing alignment.
Technology integration: CRM
and marketing automation tools
become a hub that houses
customer information, enables
sales with powerful selling tools,
automates marketing campaigns,
allows for proactive adjustments
and becomes a precise financial
forecasting system.
Sales Enablement: Providing sales
with powerful tools that allow
them to have the most relevant,
timely and efficient conversation
with their prospects.

About IDS Technology Marketing

IDS Technology Marketing is a full-service marketing firm focused on delivering end-to-end,
tightly integrated sales and marketing solutions for savvy B2B technology companies throughout
the United States and abroad.
Our deep hands-on experience in technology sales and marketing helps us understand the
needs of todays IT buyersCIOs, IT directors, managers, and administrators. And it helps us
understand the importance of the influencers and how IT purchasing decisions are distributed
across many levels and departments of a business.
Many of the worlds leading manufacturers of hardware and software for storage, security, cloud
computing, virtualization, networking, and mobile technologies rely on IDS Technology Marketing
for:

marketing strategy
marketing campaign design
development and implementation
sales enablement
lead generation and nurturing
B2B telemarketing and outsourced inside sales

Get in Touch with Us

16435 N Scottsdale Rd. Suite 195
Scottsdale, AZ 85254
Phone: 877.675.8303
Email: hello@idstm.com