Can Sales And Marketing Operate Like A Well-Oiled Machine? Should They?
There’s no shortage of people saying that B2B sales and marketing teams need to operate as a well-oiled machine, and an endless supply of advice out there on how to achieve greater alignment between your teams. Most of it is theoretically sound and what you’ve heard many times before . . . things like “involve sales in marketing strategy discussions,” “align sales and marketing around the needs of the customer,” “build joint accountability and measurement,” and "send your marketing folks on sales calls." So why is it that every company I talk to is still struggling to get these teams to play nicely together?
I think there are deeper-seeded reasons for why this chasm is so hard to bridge. And it may not even be possible, or desirable, to have these groups operating like one integrated engine. I won't say any more about my hypothesis right now, because we're doing research aimed at uncovering the REAL obstacles to sales and marketing alignment and coming up with ways to break through these underlying obstacles so that the age-old best practices can start to have an impact.
If you're a sales or marketing leader, take the survey to give us your input, and get your counterpart on the other side of this equation to take it too.