10 practical ways to align B2B Sales and Marketing teams
Sales and Marketing alignment is perhaps one of the most common B2B New Year’s resolutions. Everyone’s pumped and fully committed to getting it going, but… as the days, weeks and months roll on, it gets added to the pile of undelivered ambitions.
The reasons it features so frequently as a ‘must do’ is well known. A well-oiled go-to-market team will mean better targeting, nurturing, and selling; ultimately leading to more pipeline and revenue.
So, to help keep the motivation going, we’re sharing the recipe for how we achieve Sales and Marketing alignment at Dreamdata.
Without further ado, here are the 10 ways we do this 👇
1. We sit in the same room
There isn’t really a substitute for sharing the same space as those you want to align closely with.
At Dreamdata both Marketing and Sales sit in the same room - physically and virtually. We share the same office and Slack channel (#team-revenue). This means that conversations happen in this shared space. Successes (and failures) are shared. And a culture is shared.
2. We’re all ultimately measured on one thing: Revenue 💰
Goals and benchmarks are necessary to make sure everyone’s swimming in the same direction. And there’s one goal that sits atop all others: revenue.
At Dreamdata we measure and track revenue across all our go-to-market activities. Not only does this help make sure our efforts are all grounded on tangible business goals, but also helps dispel any accusations of one doing more than the other.
The end result? Teams are tightly aligned and focused on revenue.
Of course, for this, you need to be able to measure all your go-to-market activities in revenue. We’re lucky in this regard to have Dreamdata (the platform) to attribute revenue back to all recorded touches on our customer journeys. More on that here.
3. We have an established Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
As we wrote in this post:
“Nailing your ICP is a make or break for efficiently selling a product. After all, virtually all your activities rest on targeting the right persona at the right time. Fail to get this right and you’ll spend copious amounts of time on dead-end leads.”
It applies in equal measure to both Marketing and Sales. With a well-defined ICP, both teams are working towards the same profile, which will, by definition, be easier to attract and easier to sell to.
Say goodbye to the “you’re not pulling good leads” argument once and for all.
4. We have a Sales Accepted Lead (SAL) metric to help measure how many of MQLs are accepted as ICP by our salespeople
Ok, ok. But some non-ICPs do (inevitably) slip through the marketing net. That’s why we make sure to track the inflow leads that don’t match our ICP.
For this, we measure the Sales Accepted Lead (SAL) metric.
SAL helps us measure:
How many of marketing’s leads are not good,
And how many SALs Sales is able to close.
This helps further connect and distribute the funnels between teams and identify where there are shortcomings. And holds both teams accountable to each other!
5. We share a weekly stand-up and there’s always a Marketing rep in our weekly Sales pipeline meets
Knowing what teams are working on is also vital to ensure there’s close alignment. It helps identify relevant issues and challenges and also share successes!
Every Monday the whole commercial team runs a Stand-up meet, where each individual goes through the main tasks of the week, brings any issues to everyone’s attention and celebrate notable successes!
6. Our Content team watches recorded sales calls
How often do you hear/read about marketing having to talk the language of their customers? It’s because it’s true!
And, if there’s a marketing function that most needs to resonate with (potential) customers, it’s content.
After all, for Marketing to source the best possible leads (and generate demand) you need to have an ear to the ground. You need to know your customers’ pains and what makes them tick. What is it they’re looking to solve and how do they think your product solves this.
However, not everyone can be present at every demo and sales call. That’s why we (customer permitting) record all our Sales calls and make these available to our content team.
This not only helps keep content attuned to customers’ concerns, and aligned with Sales’ narrative, but also serves to inspire content based on real customer wants and needs.
7. Sales can suggest content themes. Whenever a new FAQ is experienced by sales, it immediately gets funnelled to our content team. 📝
It’s not only up to marketing to put out feelers - after all, there’s only really so much listening into a single customer call can offer. Sales reps really have the finger on the pulse, and so are the most acutely aware of ICP’s needs.
This makes them an invaluable asset to content creation. Whether it’s topic suggestions or the call for Sales Enablement content, there’s always an open line of communication between Sales and Content planning. 👈 sitting together and participating in the same meetings makes this effortless.
If you’re working with outsourced SDRs, make sure to incorporate them in the process too.
8. Marketing team members are invited to sales calls
Although the Dreamdata App is a ‘revenue attribution’ platform (i.e. for the whole go-to-market team), it’s mostly marketers who come knocking at our door.
This means that there’s often a marketing team presence in demo/sales calls. It also highlights how for us at Dreamdata in particular, Marketing and Sales alignment is fundamentally important.
9. Everybody has access to Dreamdata
Keeping to the Dreamdata App, all of our commercial team at Dreamdata uses the product.
This helps us track the metrics that matter to us under one roof (we mentioned revenue and SALs above).
But also, help break down data silos and track the B2B customer journey as a unified process.
Tech stacks (and the data silos within them) create big barriers to Sales and Marketing alignment. With each holding insights into only specific parts of the buying cycle.
Yet without tracking and mapping the B2B customer journey as a single journey, and not one that’s broken into funnels and pipeline stages, it’s impossible to really bring the teams together. You can read more about this aspect of aligning Sales and Marketing in more detail here.
Curious as to how Dreamdata can help your Sales team close more deals?
10. We eat lunch together… and even head out for the occasional drink together 🎉 🍹
It’s not all work and no play either…
We make it a point to eat lunch together, and of course, head out for the occasional drink together!
