Your sales goals and marketing objectives are at odds. How do you navigate this challenge in B2B contexts?

Navigating misaligned sales goals and marketing objectives in B2B contexts involves fostering open communication and collaborative planning. Align teams with shared goals and joint KPIs, as companies with aligned marketing and sales achieve 27% faster profit growth. Use CRM and analytics tools to track performance and refine strategies based on data. Implement regular feedback loops and joint training to enhance collaboration, driving towards common objectives. With leadership support, adaptability, and incentives for teamwork, achieve cohesive sales and marketing alignment for sustained business success.

Ever feel like sales and marketing are working in silos? Here's the fix: Aligned Goals, Unified Teams! Why Align? 🎯 Shared Vision: Both teams work towards the same goals (e.g., increasing revenue, boosting customer retention). 🤝 Collaboration is Key: Marketing creates targeted campaigns to support sales needs (e.g., upsells, cross-sells). 🚀 Goodbye Friction, Hello Growth: Aligned teams avoid working at cross-purposes, leading to smoother operations and better results. By aligning goals, you create a sales & marketing dream team, driving growth and achieving remarkable results!

Marketing and Sales should collaborate closely in B2B. Align on target audience, industries, and objectives. Are you focusing on Install Base, Net New efforts, or both? In what proportions? Marketing goals should be retrocalculated based on sales objectives. If Sales targets XX pipeline, how many leads should Marketing provide? Knowing the lead cost, how much budget is needed to support growth? Conversely, how many references and customer stories should Sales provide to support lead generation? What content is missing from a sales perspective? Achieving this alignment and constant feedback will create a virtuous circle between departments.

Without GTM alignment, there is little chance for success. Without a shared commitment, the teams are merely going through the motions. It is crucial for your leadership to step up and tackle the challenge of achieving alignment. I see the most failure to reach goals in companies due to a lack of alignment. What should they do? 1) Agree on measurable and cultural goals 2) Decide on strategies 3) Track your goals and how people are collaborating 4) Meet regularly 5) Make adjustments The sooner marketing, sales, and customer success realize they need a strong alignment for the company to win, the better.

The most important thing is to align on North Star Metric: Get sales and marketing to agree on one overarching goal and clear division of work. Then: 1. Create a Revenue Team: Break down silos by merging sales and marketing into one revenue-focused unit. 2. Establish Clear Definitions: Ensure everyone agrees on what constitutes a qualified lead or sales opportunity. 3. Regular cross-team weekly syncs. 4. Unified Tech Stack: Both teams should be using the same tools 5. Account-Based Marketing (ABM): Align efforts by focusing on high-value target accounts. 6. Continuous Feedback Loop: Encourage ongoing dialogue to refine processes and strategies. And of course, keep communication open and constructive. But that's always true

Communication is key and starts at the C-level as well as robust and aligned strategy. Sales and marketing should have "shared goals" and "objectives" that are aligned with the overall business strategy. This can be achieved by bringing both teams together to establish a common understanding of what success looks like.

Teamwork is the way forward in surmounting this challenge. I found that after close collaboration with the sales team, one is able to underline the duplication of effort and come up with plans which work for both. Understanding both perspectives, collaboration, and a data-driven approach will help you navigate the challenge of aligned sales goals and marketing objectives in B2B contexts. By knowing the perspective of sales and aligning marketing objectives with the sales goals, one is able to work collaboratively with the sales team to ensure there is measurement and optimization of performance regularly. We shared very exceptional results and drove successes for my clients.

Start by partnering with sales to a revenue goal, then work your way backwards from there. Let's say you both agree that this quarter's goal is $10MM and: - There's no existing pipeline coming from the previous period - Avg. sales cycle length is 45 days - Avg. deal size is $250k - Close rate over the last two quarters is 30% - MQLs become opportunities at a rate of 15% Sounds like the first goal needs to be driving 889 MQLs in the first 45 days of the quarter or discuss this quarter's revenue target further.

Start by aligning the teams on "what each function is" and what they are supposed to do. This is best done in an open discussion and a workshop setting with psychological safety present in the room. It's good to realize that even though marketing and sales are two sides of the same coin (both are part of Revenue Operations) they approach the business growth generation from different angles. Where marketing talks to masses, it can't create "direct" revenue without sales. Where sales talks to individuals, it can't "warm up" the market alone. This is teamwork. The above realization should help the teams come up with a "KPI hierarchy" where both functions have their "own" KPIs while they BOTH are also responsible for the shared "God KPIs".

Not just common metrics, but consistent metrics! All too often I see orgs talk about unified and common metrics for reporting, then notice discrepancies in the numbers themselves from one side to the other. The cause is often as simple as when a metric is gathered or which source is used, but the impact can be significant. Agree on metrics together and then agree on who/how/when they are collected and reported. Thinking about how both sides are driving the business (marketing folks: think revenue, not pipeline!) and then aligning accordingly is the path to success.

First, audit all possible KPIs that your teams could measure (trust me, there will be many). Then segment the KPIs based on: - Strategic importance - Update cadence (time) The latter means "how fast the KPI in question runs". For example, "clicks" run faster than "leads", which run faster than "SQLs", which run faster than "deals" which run faster than "revenue" ...etc. Then handpick few of the most important KPIs, align on their "definition" and "criteria". For example meaning: "what does an SQL stand for as a term" and "what criteria constitutes an SQL". Finally, you sprinkle the KPIs across time and follow them as a team. The above is best done in a workshop setting with an open mind, and in the presence of psychological safety.

Develop common metrics that demonstrate the impact of sales and marketing towards shared goals. Lead conversion rates, customer acquisition costs and sales cycle length are great metrics based on which you can unify the effort from both " CRO" commerce side (sales) & digital marketing. Track your performance and where you can improve using these same metrics.

Establish processes that enable both teams to work together seamlessly. This can include processes for lead generation, lead scoring, and lead handoff.

Bridge the gap between sales and marketing communication. In order for this to take place, regular sessions will help you discuss changes together and give everyone a shared platform that lets them talk (such as Slack or Microsoft Teams). Better communication flow keep both teams up-to-date of what is going on with the other, challenges they are facing and their wins too.

Working as the GTM super team, marketing, sales, and customer success should have constant and open communications. The communication runs alongside the customer journey your GTM strategy is supporting. The communications support the GTM collaboration and help improve the experience for the buyers.

This is a crucial area that is almost certainly overlooked by many organizations. If done correctly it can pivot growth and add value. Sales and marketing need to communicate effectively to ensure that both teams are working towards the same goals. This can be done through regular meetings, shared communication channels, and clear processes for sharing information. Create shared processes.

Create an aligned sales and marketing strategy. This plan should detail how sales goals will be reinforced by marketing and vice versa. For example, marketing campaigns can be created to attract leads which meet the target customer profile of sales team. With collaborative planning, both teams are able to work together in unison.

I like to call this the feedback flywheel. You might be amazed how often there are signals in the marketing process that inform sales of what matters most to buyers. From the other side, sales can update marketing on what is working to reach the buyers and what isn't. Bottom line: They are not just two separate entities, but interconnected and interdependent. They need each other in order to improve and win.

Nothing we are doing in GTM is in stone. We must listen to the feedback we are getting and make adjustments. At the same time, let an idea play out and ensure it's not under-resourced. These are leadership judgment calls, and it sure helps to have data to review. Working together in marketing, sales, and customer success can address many GTM sins and miscalculations. By listening to each other and giving the metrics the attention they deserve, you can improve results.