Learning Nugget 27 - Alignment the definition of Success
This week’s learning nugget is an exploration of alignment. Not just with the buyer and their buying journey, but within your own organisation. Achieving alignment, especially between product teams, marketing teams and sales teams, around a common goal and a common approach, a True North, if you will, has proven documented profound impact of performance and results for shareholders and customers.
Here’s a 22 well documented statistics to underscore that point.
Customers believe that sales reps are 88% knowledgeable on product and only 24% on business expertise (Corporate Visions)
B2B organizations with tightly aligned sales and marketing operations achieved 24% faster three-year revenue growth, and 27% faster three-year profit growth (SiriusDecisions)
75% of buyers want marketers to curb the sales-speak in their content (DemandGen Report)
95% of buyers chose a solution provider that “Provided them with ample content to help navigate through each stage of the buying process” (DemandGen Report)
Organizations with tightly aligned sales and marketing functions enjoyed 36% higher customer retention rates (MarketingProfs)
They also experienced 38% higher sales win rates (MarketingProfs)
Companies with “dynamic, adaptable sales and marketing processes” reported an average of 10% more sales people on-quota compared to other companies (CSO Insights)
When sales and marketing teams are in sync, companies became 67% better at closing deals (Marketo)
Companies with aligned sales and marketing generated 208% more revenue from marketing (MarketingProfs)
B2B companies’ inability to align sales and marketing teams around the right processes and technologies has cost them upwards of 10% or more of revenue per year, or $100 million for a billion-dollar company. (IDC)
Alignment of sales and marketing impacts revenue growth up to 3 times (Bulldog Solutions)
60-70% of B2B content created is never used. Most cited reason why is because the topic is irrelevant to the buyer audience. (Content Marketing Institute)
61% of B2B marketers send all leads directly to Sales; however, only 27% of those leads will be qualified (MarketingSherpa)
Just 56% of B2B organizations verify valid business leads before they are passed to Sales (MarketingSherpa)
A whopping 68% of B2B organizations have not identified their funnel. (MarketingSherpa)
57% of B2B organizations identify ‘converting qualified leads into paying customers’ as a top funnel priority. (MarketingSherpa)
65% of B2B marketers have not established lead nurturing. (MarketingSherpa)
Nearly 2/3 of B2B marketers identified engaging key decision makers as their top challenge (Forrester Research)
76% of content marketers are forgetting sales enablement (Hubspot)
Only 9% of marketers say their digital marketing is effective (Adobe Digital Distress Report)
Increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25-95% (Bain & Company)
86% of B2B buyers access business-related content on mobile devices (Genwi)
Read over those stats again. There’s some powerful insight in here. Customers want partners that are more business outcome focused, with greater alignment in product, marketing and sales activities, and are willing to pay for it to the tune of significant revenue increases over current. In fact well into the double digit improved performance. Here is a wonderful short 3 and a half min video from ASPIRE! Group Ecosystem member – Frank Cesepedes – on aligning Strategy and Sales. Some provocative questions for you to ponder and ask yourself in his 3 step approach. How well would you rate yourself in the three areas ?
Finally a short but pointed recommendation from another ASPIRE! Group Ecosystem member, Christine Crandell. In this 3-4 min article, Christine shares a clear, concise and perfect definition of what True North really is. http://www.forbes.com/sites/christinecrandell/2013/04/05/sales-and-marketing-alignment-begins-with-the-customer/#1105c61739e5 In summary, align all around the customer and their desired outcomes. Genuinely align, not lip service.
