Teaching quantum mechanics; managing international relations; thinking of something witty to write when you’re the last person to be passed the CFO’s birthday card. Some things in life are genuinely difficult.
Sales and Marketing alignment isn’t one of them.
Over this series of blog posts, we’ve shown you how to drive alignment in just four simple steps:
#1 Taking the first step by agreeing what the ideal prospect looks like
Get sales and marketing together, get a whiteboard, and map that persona.
#2 Define exactly what a sales ready lead is
While you’re there, map their journey through the funnel, and decide exactly when it’s OK to call them ‘sales-ready’
#3 Link Your Marketing Automation System to Your CRM System
You’ve got your people talking, now get your systems talking too.
#4 Track the Sales and Marketing metrics that matter
It’s the only way you’ll know whether steps #1 to #3 are paying off.
But there’s still one more step to go. And that last step is perhaps both the simplest, and the most important of all.
#5 For true Sales and Markeing Alignment: Keep doing it
Perfect sales and marketing alignment isn’t the kind of thing that you achieve in a day. It’s the kind of thing you gradually work towards over many, many days through a process of regular observation and ongoing refinement.
The four steps outlined above aren’t one-time deals. They’re steps to repeat again and again, as your customers, your business—and the latest marketing tools and trends—all, simultaneously, evolve.
By repeating them regularly, you’ll be able to keep pace with all this change, and ensure it doesn’t quietly push Sales and Marketing back out of phase.
Even better, you’ll be constantly driving Sales and Marketing into even closer alignment, highlighting and fixing any problems in their newly happy marriage, long before they develop into a harmful rift.
Step into action…
We’ll say it one last time: Sales and Marketing alignment is a whole lot simpler than it’s cracked up to be.
If you’ve worked your way through all these posts, you’re more than ready to get started. If you haven’t already, book that meeting room, buy some biscuits, and begin perfecting your demand generation process, one step at a time.
Good luck. (Though you’re really not going to need it.)
Wish you had all this advice—and much more besides—in a single handy download, rather than scattered across a multitude of blog posts? Be sure to check out our Sales & Marketing Alignment Made Easy E-book.
