Ask any random passerby off the street what the difference between sales and marketing is, and you’ll likely get the answer “Huh? They’re different?” While marketing teams do often start off as a subsidiary of sales, the two divisions become increasingly diversified and specialised as a company grows larger. That’s when the problem of misalignment starts creeping in.
Loosely speaking, misalignment occurs when marketing and sales become out of touch with each other, resulting in inefficiencies across the board and less-than-ideal corporate performance. So how can you tell if your sales and marketing teams aren’t working together as well as they should? Here are five telltale signs.
1. Nobody in sales uses the leads generated by marketing
In an ideal world, sales teams will always make use of marketing collaterals, because they recognise how incisive market research can help them out in the field. In reality, however, sales departments may come to regard marketing leads as unrepresentative of actual market conditions. Up to 50% of marketing leads are routinely ignored by sales reps on the basis of this belief.
2. Marketing doesn’t brief sales about the leads they generate
On the other side of the divide, marketing departments aren’t exactly scrambling to liaise with their sales counterparts either. Far too often, marketing personnel consider their jobs done once a lead has been generated. Further explanation of exactly how or when a particular lead can be utilised is not forthcoming, so sales continues to perceive marketing leads as lacking practical value. The vicious cycle continues.
3. They can’t stop blaming each other when things go wrong
A surefire method to evaluate company unity is to see how much blame gets thrown around when bottom lines are called into question. Since the work of sales and marketing is so intertwined, some finger-pointing is inevitable. You’ll know you have a misalignment problem on your hands, however, if the respective heads are too busy rebutting each other to even acknowledge your presence.
4. Joint meetings are rare, and nasty when they do occur
All good relationships require both parties to engage in frequent, meaningful contact, so it’s no surprise that misalignment occurs when sales and marketing departments don’t meet regularly. When they do meet, a lot of time is likely to be wasted on resolving disputes arising out of communication breakdowns. This prevents both departments from focusing on what truly matters: learning how to coordinate better.
5. They have very different ideas of what a good day at the office entails
Sales departments are very much fixated on meeting quotas and closing deals. Marketers, on the other hand, prefer to play the long-term game and gradually build competitive advantage. Different priorities naturally result in different goals being set, which basically means the two departments are working at cross-purposes. Warning bells should go off in your head if your sales and marketing teams start celebrating on different occasions.
Tried-and-true tips only at #tiasg2017
If your sales and marketing departments display any of the above signs, the solution is thankfully near at hand. Simply join us at Tech in Asia Singapore 2017 for a session entitled “How to maximise growth by achieving sales & marketing alignment”.
Helmed by Justin Lee, Senior Marketing Manager (SEA) at Hubspot, the session will include key takeaways such as: what ‘smarketing’ is; the metrics to share between sales and marketing teams; and the importance of a closed looped system.
You can attend this session (and all of the other talks on our jam-packed agenda!) from just US$297 for startups. Book now to enjoy a 20 percent discount with the promo code ‘tiasg20’ (valid until this Friday, 10 March, 2359 GMT +8) – that’s just three days left!
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