2. Streamline process integration
Focus on processes before people
Attack the process first, not the people. It’s the processes that are broken.
“Attack the process first, not the people,” says Jennifer Jackson. “It’s the processes that are broken.” Historically, marketing and sales alignment focused on handoffs. Marketing built brand and generated leads; sales closed deals. This siloed approach led to misunderstandings and conflicts. Marketing spent “too much time” on branding instead of sales support, and sales saw many leads as worthless, failing to appreciate marketing's contributions.
Today’s clients require an integrated approach to a non-linear, bespoke buying process. They want new ideas, proof of value, and constant support. Marketing and sales must work together throughout the client lifecycle to meet these demands.
Marketing and sales teams have long struggled with shifting from product-out to client-in approaches. Pushing the portfolio often seems easier than starting with client needs and designing customized solutions. However, as customer demands rise, client-centricity becomes more important.
Organizing around client needs and the buyer’s journey guides a more integrated marketing and sales motion. Campaign planning is more effective with deep client insight; sales enablement can focus on responding to the unique needs of different accounts.
ABM can lead the way. ABM methodologies bring marketing and sales together to diagnose customer needs, map stakeholders, develop targeted sales plays, and design integrated campaigns. Nearly three-quarters of ABM programs see improved sales team satisfaction, and 68% of marketers believe ABM significantly improves marketing and sales alignment.[1]
This approach allows teams to collaborate on client insight, campaign planning, messaging, content development, and ongoing engagement. It can involve sales in the marketing process earlier and define requirements for ongoing marketing initiatives throughout the sales process.
Tools and data are fragmented and managed by different teams for different objectives. Investing in a unified infrastructure for marketing and sales is daunting but beneficial. “If you don’t have a clear data architecture purpose-built for your applications and workflow, you will fall behind,” says Marianna Kantor, CMO at Esri.
Joint tools, such as common CRM, ABM, and content management platforms, enable seamless communication and collaboration. “It’s about improving client intelligence but also avoiding the times when sales asks you to quickly pull together an executive client briefing and people are running around and spending hours researching,” says Steve Sienkiewicz, Strategic Account Program Leader at Black & Veatch.
Amit Deshpande highlights the importance of integrated dashboards that provide real-time performance insights: “We have a shared services team that helped us build a dashboard aggregating relevant information so both marketers and salespeople can access the same data. Reducing the effort to find information allows more time for consuming necessary data.”
Read our Beginners’ guide to martech for more information on how to optimize your tech stack
The third critical lever in process integration is enablement, primarily for sales but also for marketing. B2B firms have invested heavily in sales enablement recently, and the rise of generative AI provides new support capabilities. The question is the extent to which marketing and sales develop initiatives and assets together versus operating in silos.
Marketing should build sales enablement into processes for thought leadership, executive engagement, events, and campaign planning. Sales should provide input and feedback on key activities, equipping marketing with insights about the sales process.
Integrating sales and marketing operations for enablement teams can be beneficial. Virtusa’s Brian Jochum says, “Our sales operations group supports both marketing and sales. That way we are equal partners with data, processes, and training. We’re aligned on the same tools and operations for activities like email campaigns and using LinkedIn SalesNavigator. It’s a simple thing but being aligned at the core on our methods and systems is a big deal.”
Being aligned at the core on our methods and systems is a big deal.
