Getting Sales and Marketing on the Same Page

Even on a good day, getting sales and marketing on the same page is a seemingly impossible task. For starters, by the nature of their work, Marketing and Sales focus on different tasks and priorities. Consequently, they are often assigned goals that only serve to widen the alignment gap that already exists.

No wonder CEOs and COOs are frustrated.

There are, however, ways to narrow the gap considerably. One of the more effective methods lies in creating joint goals for both functions.

Here’s an example that is relevant to any start-up or firm entering new markets (geographic or vertical – both work).

The metric: time to first customer reference.

Acquiring a new customer is one thing. Cooperating to acquire one to which is willing to act as a reference has spin-off benefits for both functions. Among them:

Continuity: Marketing’s focus doesn’t begin and end with supplying qualified leads to Sales. A satisfied customer’s experience can be used in PR, featured on the firm’s website, or published as a use case – all fodder for a broader marketing campaign.
Shared skin in the game: The stake of a shared outcome brings shared focus, priority, effort, scheduling and – importantly – commitment and willingness to work through problems and glitches that are bound to arise.
Having the wind at your back: Establishing that all-important first “win” in a new market eases the path to market penetration, and lightens the load for future campaigns and sales.

Joint Goals Must be Relevant and Actionable
Not every goal you could think of is going to be appropriate. Those that lend themselves well to establishing joint sales and marketing goals must:

yield an outcome that is relevant and important to each
produce short term results
be measurable

Takeaway
Getting sales and marketing to work effectively together is a difficult, but not impossible task. Assigning a joint goal will make difference. Take a test drive with one goal first. Add 1 – 2 others and you’ll likely have what you need to solidly align sales and marketing functions.

Written by Michael

Michael Douglas has held senior positions in sales, marketing and general management since 1980, and spent 20 years at Sun Microsystems, most recently as VP, Global Marketing. His experience includes start-ups, mid-market and enterprises. He's currently VP Enterprise Go-to-Market for NVIDIA.