Cover design: Michael J. Freeland
Copyright © 2016 by John Wiley & Sons. All rights reserved.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:.
Names: Eiler, Tracy, author. | Austin, Andrea, author.
Title: Aligned to achieve: how to unite your sales and marketing teams intoa single force for growth / Tracy Eiler, Andrea Austin.
Description: Hoboken: Wiley, 2016. | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016031021 (print) | LCCN 2016035377 (ebook) | ISBN9781119291756 (hardback) | ISBN 9781119291794 (pdf) | ISBN 9781119291770 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Marketing. | Selling. | BISAC: BUSINESS & ECONOMICS /Marketing / General.
Classification: LCC HF5415 .E445 2016 (print) | LCC HF5415 (ebook) | DDC 658.3/044–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016031021
Alignment should be the number-one operational issue for every business-to-business company. The era of fostering tension between sales and marketing is over. Businesses achieve more success and operate at a higher level – meaning more growth, more profits, and more productivity – when the teams interacting with the customer are tightly aligned. That extends from alignment on defining who the customer is, to what the customer sees and hears, to how that customer is approached, engaged with, and ultimately won.
We are in the midst of a long and unprecedented period of rapid, technology-fueled business transformation. Markets have become more competitive, products more commoditized, new business channels and methods are appearing, and technology has become ubiquitous and affordable by even the smallest companies. What that means is any company of any size can effectively compete against rivals and everyone has a harder time standing out from the growing noise in every market. Even more, buyers and buying cycles have transformed because buyers have more power and more information, which enables them to be independent of, disconnected from, and less reliant on you as a seller.
All of this has led us to today, where B2B businesses are fundamentally challenged in their go-to-market efforts. Noise in the market has skyrocketed, confusion abounds, differentiation is elusive, and buyer attention is a limited resource.
So what's a company to do?
Leaders must align their teams to focus on company growth, not departmental success. Gone are the days when sales could focus only on closing deals, marketing could focus only on generating leads, and every other department could look at their own achievements. When teams are aligned and aimed at common goals, they work better together and they win more often. But alignment is not just necessary for growth, it is necessary for survival because buyers are no longer responding to traditional and disjointed outreaches. Instead, companies must coordinate across all touchpoints where buyers are engaged, regardless of who initiates that contact or how. Buyers do not see sales and marketing; they see your brand and your company, your website and your booth at a show. Alignment enables a thoughtful, coordinated engagement with customers, and they will respond favorably.
