Sales and marketing are two sides of the same coin – the fundamentals which everything else in business revolves around: the awareness of value (marketing) and the trade of value (sales). You would think it obvious that they should pull in the same direction in order to deliver profitable business. Unfortunately in the b2b world you see raging battles of Sales vs Marketing, an us vs them, and it’s costing businesses big time. 

The internet is filled with articles covering this topic, as if to convince people of this new and important development to take on board. However, this concept is as old as the days of fishmongers waxing lyrical at the top of their lungs about their fresh harvests from the sea, or newspaper boys running through the streets yelling headlines of the newspapers in their hands. What we can take from these examples, including my own experience in sales and marketing from the early 2000s, is that the person doing the yelling and the person dispensing the change was one and the same, and for good reason.

Job advertisements were generally stated as Sales & Marketing, with the requirement for sales to have marketing experience, and the requirement of marketing to have sales experience. You didn’t often see the siloed approach we’re so used to where sales and marketing are distinct departments each with their own KPIs, strategy and processes, operating from a place of competition instead of collaboration.

With the changes we’ve seen in the sales/buying process due to the digital and social world, the need for these two to get back to working together is undeniable, and businesses will have to be progressive in order to make the necessary adjustments to their strategy, processes, team organisation and communication.

A quick glance at these figures from Hubspot’s 2024 State of Sales Report clearly indicates the potential benefits of aligned sales and marketing in an advanced digital age:

What does it look like when sales and marketing pull in the same direction?

• a jointly created new customer journey 
• both agree on a single client persona 
• a ‘marketing first approach’ where marketing nurtures leads before sales jump in
• measuring of joint KPIs
• use of client feedback to fine-tune content, strategy and messaging
• consistent use of terms and messaging
• creation of assets that support the sales process and help close deals
• collaboration on post-sale growth and retention
• a unified content strategy
• closed-loop reporting that shares data and feedback on the quality and outcome of leads to refine strategy
• a sense of camaraderie instead of competition

To close off, let’s consider the new funnel, which clearly speaks for itself:

The scope of ‘Creating awareness’ (aka marketing) has expanded to an enormous degree and will require considerable strategy, content design and investment in technology, informed by the client journey and sales. 

Luckily there are loads of resources available to help you start thinking about what this could look like either in your business or your team. There will likely be a steep learning curve, and adjustments of attitudes and perspectives can be uncomfortable for some, especially those that have a narrow understanding of marketing and limited experience, but once everyone sees how much easier it makes their work, and how much more efficient and effective they are in delivering results, the faster it will be adopted.

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Cheers for now.