Here's Why Your Sales And Marketing Teams Aren't Aligned

It's a saga as old as time itself. The one side is driven by creating outstanding content, and the other is driven by closing deals. Regardless of which analogies you'd use to describe the relationship between sales and marketing, one thing is for certain: they're both different sides to the same coin. Here are four telltale signs that your sales and marketing teams are not in line... and how to get them on the same page!

Marketing Is Obsessed With Marketing Qualified Leads

Industry research has shown that marketing squads more often than not set the wrong key performance indexes for maximum sales and marketing alignment. If your marketing team is solely focused on an MQL metric, it’s a huge barrier to alignment between departments.

These leads are often hailed as a be-all and end-all when it comes to measuring performance. The problem with this is that sales get left in the dirt with this one. A sales team isn't judged by its ability to receive leads — it's judged by its ability to convert those leads into customers.

The solution: Once an MQL is passed off, it has to transition to an SQL, be deemed an opportunity, and receive a proposal before closing. In this case, it can help to have your marketing department set a revenue goal, based on closed bookings, to ensure that your marketers keep your sales team in mind when gauging leads and go the extra mile to stay on the same page.

Interdepartmental Syncing Needs To Run Like Clockwork

The top priority for these two departments would be communication. This is the only way for them to be in sync. No person is an island, that's for sure. They have to meaningfully interact with each other — consistently.

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Your sales team needs to champion the results it's seeing from the leads marketing is passing along. And both have to understand each other's respective plans and strategies when it comes to messaging. Additionally, if you're planning specific campaigns, both departments need to know what to expect from each other, even if this means a special SLA needs to be created. 

The solution: A mutual understanding between departments needs to be maintained at all times. If you don't, you might create a rift that leads to unnecessary tension in both departments, affecting the bottom line of your business. 

Tell Marketing To Improve The Sales Process, In Moderation

Marketing teams are often tasked with creating enticing content to load the top of the sales funnel with, such as e-books and so on — general sales collateral type stuff.

Though these teams are creating the content, it does not mean it's, to the T, marketing content. Marketers aim for  attention-grabbing pieces of work, often shying away from brand-specific creations. That said, the term "sales" in "sales content" is a bit misleading — marketing departments often have a significant role in creating that kind of stuff. And if your marketing team has no place in that process, your departments probably aren't on the same page.

The solution: Use your marketing team's strong point: content creation.  So, if your sales department is monopolising that role, it might mean there's some tension or a lack of communication between teams. In a nutshell, the left brain and right brain need to lean on one another every once in a while.