Probably one of the most effective strategies for any business to be successful is when sales and marketing work in harmony. While this phrase has been catching a lot of attention in the past decade or so, it has become more obvious now as businesses are realizing that only when sales and marketing efforts are aligned, can an organization sell more, sell better, and enjoy a genuine boost in bottom-line growth.
Don’t take our word for it. Here are five eye-opening facts that show you why sales and marketing alignment is the need of the hour.
1. Greater is the sales and marketing alignment, higher is the return on investment
The return on sales and marketing alignment is invariably tied to the benefits that organizations reap in terms of a revenue boost, closure rates, and customer retention rates. Still not convinced? Here are some statistics to prove this. According to MarketingProfs:
- Organizations with tightly aligned sales and marketing functions enjoy 36% higher customer retention rates.
- Businesses with strong sales and marketing alignment are 67% better at closing deals. (Source: Marketo)
- Effective sales and marketing alignment leads to businesses that are 58% more effective at retaining customers. (Source: TribalImpact)
- Aligning sales and marketing also leads to 38% higher sales win rates. (Source: Review42)
- Companies see an average of 19% faster revenue growth and 15% profitability when sales and marketing teams are aligned. (Source: Tribal Impact)
- B2B organizations with tightly aligned sales and marketing operations achieve 24% faster three-year revenue growth and 27% faster three-year profit growth. (Source: SiriusDecisions)
- Aligning both departments can help generate 209% more revenue from marketing. (Source: Marketo)
2. Alignment on the definition of qualified leads, results in more productive prospecting
One of the big problem areas between sales and marketing teams is the failure to reach a common consensus in defining the qualified and unqualified leads. The lack of alignment gives way to unqualified leads that haven’t been nurtured enough and are not ready to buy. Several robust statistics will help understand this gap. According to Marketo:
- 80% of sales time is wasted on unproductive prospecting.
- 79% of marketing leads never convert into sales. This is often due to a lack of lead nurturing. (Source: HubSpot)
- 61% of B2B marketers send all leads directly to sales, but only 27% of those leads will be qualified. (Source: MarketingSherpa)
- Just 56% of B2B organizations verify valid business leads before they are passed to sales. (Source: ZoomInfo)
- 47% larger purchases result from nurtured leads than non-nurtured leads. (Source: Annuitas)
3. A collaborative approach makes the sales enablement strategy more effective
Nearly all of your prospects are likely to become clients if you stay involved during the entire customer journey. Regardless of whether your business cycle is short, long, or somewhere in the middle, sales and marketing need to work together to create the right assets across various touchpoints to ensure conversion of customers. This is where a dynamic sales enablement strategy and audit comes in. Several statistics will help us understand why such a collaborative approach is needed.
- 76% of content marketers forget sales enablement as a part of their goal (Source: HubSpot).
- 65% of sales reps say they cannot find content to send to prospects (Source: Upland Software).
- 60-70% of B2B content created is never used. In many cases, this is because the topic is irrelevant to the buyer audience (Source: Content Marketing Institute).
- 95% of buyers buy from someone who gave them content at each stage of their buyer’s journey (Source: HubSpot).
Hence, it is useful for marketing to understand what the right assets are and where they can be plugged in during the entire sales process. Working together will allow sales reps to know precisely which assets exist and they can pull them up as needed in the business cycle.
4. Sales and marketing alignment makes the buying process simpler
The buying process has become much more complex than it was before. With so much more online content readily available and more decision-makers in the process, the buying process no longer follows the traditional linear sales funnel but it is much more fluid and can rapidly change. It is only when sales and marketing work effectively together that they can help make the process easier, which can be seen from the statistics below. According to Tribal Impact:
- 73% of B2B respondents rely on more sources to research and evaluate purchases.
- 88% of B2B buyers find that the information they encounter during the buying process is high quality but 50% report feeling overwhelmed by the amount of trustworthy information they have to go through during their research.
- 83% of B2B buyers often speed up or put on hold purchase decisions due to changing business needs and/or priorities.
5. The correlation between alignment and technology
Aligned companies are more adaptable to new technologies. Once you realize the potential benefits of marketing automation and align your teams, you can expect a bright future for your business. This can be seen from the statistics below.
- 74% of organizations that use CRM and marketing automation have aligned marketing and sales departments (Source: DemandGen).
- Aligned businesses are 20% more likely to implement marketing automation than non-aligned ones (Source: Ascend2).
- Sales and marketing alignment stats show 42% of all aligned businesses use marketing automation (Source: Act-On).
In conclusion, keep in mind, that the next time you investigate your general objectives – which for some organizations include expanding deals and income – don’t ignore the significance of sales and marketing alignment as a demonstrated strategy for accomplishing those objectives!