Sales and marketing soulmates: best practices for effective alignment

In our previous post, “Sales enablement, meet B2B content marketing: a love story”, we discussed the importance of setting the scene for a romance to blossom between the sales and marketing functions of the business. We covered why such a working relationship must be a close, seamless one. This post will cover how to ignite the spark of a deep and meaningful connection that merges sales and marketing as soulmates who function as ‘smarketing’.  

Alignment between the sales and marketing functions solves many problems, not only between teams but across the business.  

Business problems caused by misaligned sales and marketing teams (and how to fix them) 

Rapid business growth isn’t possible where there is a misalignment between sales and marketing and too many friction points. Let’s unpack a few of these headaches. 

  1. Poor quality data on customers

The prevalence of point-solution technology stacks has led to bloated, unsexy software and a complex web of customer data that often fails to provide valuable insights due to multiple sources. In addition, the disconnect between sales and marketing has over-complicated the relationship.  

By bringing the teams together and enabling collaboration, it is possible to discover hidden trends and streamline technology. Creating a centre of excellence that caters to both sales and marketing can ensure that your technology is well-integrated and offers meaningful insights. 

  2. B2B marketing content isn’t used to its full potential  

An oft-cited statistic is that 65% of marketing content goes unused by sales teams. The biggest reason for this? Lack of alignment between the two departments. Marketing often creates and delivers sales assets without seeking input from the sellers, leading to content that fails to meet the sales team’s needs or provide any meaningful impact on deals.  

This means that about two-thirds of marketing’s investment in content development—often as much as 12% of the marketing budget—will likely be wasted. Content that should be impacting revenue by helping to close late-stage deals is just sitting unused. Mind-boggling, right? 

By achieving greater alignment between marketing and sales, content can be developed that effectively addresses the specific needs of sellers, resulting in higher use rates and fewer wasted hours on one-off requests. Ultimately, this can lead to more efficient and effective collaboration between the two teams, and the more the teams learn from each other, the better their content creation can be. 

Rather than just ticking quantity boxes every month, marketing teams must take their roles seriously as creators of a direct path to a sale by producing better content. When marketing and sales communicate properly, the conversations lead to more relevant content topics that generate quality sales leads. Content creators will also find ways to reposition messaging of sales materials to resonate better with prospects and customers.  

  3. Poorly handled lead handoffs between marketing and sales 

Lead handoff can easily become a friction point between marketing and sales. Marketing may pick up hundreds of Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) at an event, and sales may decide to keep hitting on recycled opportunities instead, complaining that marketing leads aren’t qualified enough.  

Here, both teams must agree on how leads are scored and how fast sales should act on them. This allows them to operate more effectively while ensuring interested buyers see a timely response and no opportunity is left untouched. 

  4. Difficulty demonstrating ROI 

When departments work in isolation, it’s hard to show the return on investment (ROI) of specific assets. This is particularly true for marketing, which may struggle to prove that its efforts significantly impacted closing a deal. Silos can also obscure organisational inefficiencies, making it difficult to identify where investments are required. 

Like a marriage, a sales and marketing relationship isn’t a 50-50 affair. A real soulmate alignment between sales and marketing demands both teams give 100% all the time. Alignment can ensure credit is given where earned, reducing tensions. By working together, teams can better understand how each function contributes to the overall success of the business and make informed decisions about where to invest their time and resources.  

Best practices for sales and marketing alignment 

Now that you know what problems are holding sales and marketing alignment back, let’s look at how to solve them. 

Soulmates who share goals unlock them together 

Evaluate metrics from a sales point of view: If a blog post attracts the most views but produces only a handful of leads or a whitepaper generates many leads, yet only a few are qualified, the success metrics aren’t adding up. The content may seem successful from a marketing perspective but does not satisfy sales requirements.   

Acknowledge that everyone is on the same side: Recognise that sales and marketing work toward the same goals. Whether a broader company goal (doubling revenue) or specific objectives (new product or service launch), it is critical to agree on business outcomes collectively. When sales and marketing operate in isolation, leaders tend to have a narrow focus on respective operations. Marketing may prioritise lead generation, while sales may concentrate on closing specific accounts. But by bringing their perspectives together under a shared goal, they will work as two halves of a whole.  

Soulmates that strategise together, succeed together 

Sales and marketing teams must come together on their go-to-market strategies instead of working independently in the same orbit.  

Leaders from both teams must build their strategy together to ensure inter-team buy-in, eliminate confusion, and guarantee everyone is working towards the same shared goals. 

How to bring sales and marketing together to strategise? Date nights. Or at least, the working equivalent. By scheduling regular sync meetings and gathering everyone in the same physical or digital space, there is more room for open, dynamic discussions to achieve soulmate status through smarketing alignment.  

Soulmates resolve uncomfortable conversations for growth 

In any relationship, friction can create discomfort. Confronting that discomfort is essential for growth. When teams get stuck in their ways with processes, strategies, or systems, it is a surefire way to lose competitive edge.  

Constructive criticism must be actively encouraged. Unfortunately, some business environments can be toxic because teams are reluctant to speak up as they worry about retaliation, office politics, or confrontation. Bridging the gap between sales and marketing allows both sides to understand decisions and leads to better results. 

How to encourage useful feedback from both sales and marketing? By creating formalised platforms for respectful engagement. Embracing these challenging conversations without taking things personally or getting defensive ensures that teams aren’t simply making the easiest choice but making the right one. 

Soulmates communicate with consistency for transparency 

Olivia Riches, group account director at Right on the Line, an agency that specialises in supporting big blue chips in delivering effective sales and marketing assets, says one of the biggest culprits in misalignment is inadequate communication.  

“To help sales and marketing teams enhance their bond, it is necessary to have centralised communications. This keeps everyone in the loop and limits gossip and speculation while increasing transparency,” she says. “Using a centralised communications tool like Slack or email is important. Let teams know where to find updates, and how regularly these will go out. This ensures that no matter the size of the team, sales and marketing is always on the same page.  

“Further, to remain relevant and useful, B2B marketers need to go beyond traditional marketing tactics and early-stage lead-generation content marketing initiatives and step up their efforts to bring value to the business. We find supporting engagements throughout the buyer journey and assisting other customer-engaging teams with communication and content requirements is one of the most fundamental ways to do so,” Riches says.  

Outsourcing B2B content creation can facilitate greater sales and marketing alignment 

Better content performance (whether sales or marketing) means better marketing and sales performance, which means better business results. So, much like couple’s counselling, start the journey to alignment today by exploring how outsourcing B2B content marketing requirements can help both marketing and sales success.