Sales and marketing, marketing and sales, no matter what side of the fence you sit those two words together elicit and inherent response. It probably goes something like this, marketing says, “Sales couldn’t close a deal if the lead came to them with signed contract in hand.” Sales replies with, “these leads suck!” A productive two way dialog between the two prime revenue-generating departments in an organization. The times they are a changing, and the divide is not as far as you may think.

In the past couple months, I found myself attending two separate conferences, one tailored exclusively to marketers, the Marketo Summit. The other tailored to inside sales leaders, AAISP Summit. Two weeks, two conferences and one UNIFIED message, sales and marketing must be aligned if our organizations plan to drive revenue and grow.  Sales and Marketing leaders said the exact same thing, yet there still seems to be a divide. How does this happen? As a Sales Professional who lives and breathes in a Marketing first world, 3 things come to mind. Process, Compensation and Ego!

Let’s explore the process first.  While it may seem boring, the process is the glue that binds alignment together. There must be a tangible way for sales and marketing to define a lead, qualify it, hand it off to sales, and ultimately close win business for the organization. If there is no defined process, which is followed and agreed upon by BOTH sides of the house, then there is only one outcome.  The ongoing battle, “Sales can’t close,” and “the leads suck!” Not productive.  The development of a shared process must be established, I’m sure you think you’ve done this and done it well, and even if that is the case it was a set it and forget it type of action.  The process is fluid and must be revisited continually based on feedback from sales and marketing. That feedback loop must be built into the process! That process requires a mechanism to be tracked and measured, those are up to you, but again make it a joint decision and make it scalable.

After a scalable process is established and agreed upon, the next logical step is compensation. Sales is typically the highest paid group within an organization, but as the relationship of sales and marketing evolves, sales realizes the importance of their marketing counterparts in their success and marketing is being held responsible for more that just throwing “leads” over the fence.  As quotas are rising for the sales people, marketing is seeing KPIs focused on “qualified leads” generated, pipeline influence, and (gasp) revenue!  This is a crucial evolution of marketing and how they interact with sales, similar standards being set across the board means that marketing should be met with compensation standards similar to their sales counterparts. Performance-based compensation sets goals, creates alignment, and is straight-up good for business and morale.

The third challenge in this puzzling tale, and probably the most common and hardest to overcome, are those egos.  It’s about creating a culture of shared wins and celebrating them TOGETHER. I’ve found, and trust me I am guilty of it myself, when sales closes a deal they get the pat on the back, they get their name on the big board and they get the big payday!  I love all of that, I really do, that’s why I love sales, but for sales to think they are the single cog in an increasingly shortened and heavily influenced sales cycle is all about ego. Sales closes, and it’s celebrated, but I can tell you from experience the more you celebrate those wins with your partner-in-crime (Marketing), thank them, recognize them, and give them their credit. In return, they will be more willing to help you win the next big deal.  That type of culture is created from the top. Sales and marketing leadership need to work together to create that type of environment.  Lift each other up and celebrate the dynamic duo they are, the bottom line is if Marketing brings in qualified leads and sales can close them then everyone wins.

Two weeks, 2 conferences, 4000 Marketers and 3,000 Sales leaders and everyone is saying the same thing. Sales and Marketing must be aligned to enjoy the type of success every business is striving to achieve.  They may say it in different ways and with different visuals, but the bottom line is sales and marketing are joining forces and you’d better be ready for the ripple effect.