Whether you’re tackling an agitated extraterrestrial or trying to get noticed, remembered and bought in the world of B2B, success doesn't happen without a unified team that plays to individual strengths. Smith and Golblum’s characters’ clock this, but how’s the world of B2B fairing? When it comes to sales and marketing, Houston, we may have a problem.

McKinsey reports that 57% of B2B decision makers say their sales teams do not fully utilise “and often ignore” content created by their marketing teams. But, even more worrying than that is the average overlap in target customer between B2B marketing and B2B sales is only 16%. 

So to put it simply, sales and marketing can find themselves working independently on the same mission; one using a laser beam, the other a supersonic mega blaster, and neither of them fully benefiting from the other’s ammo. Sound familiar?

A few things can increase the chances of blowing the competition out of the skies:

One -

Ensure sales and marketing are fighting the same fight by targeting the same buyers (not rocket science, but still worth checking). 

We all know that marketing primes buyers and fills the pipeline with leads and sales turns those leads into customers. Research shows that when sellers reach out to buyers who have been previously primed by marketing they are much more likely to respond. A recent study showed that 19% of buyers were more likely to accept a connection request from sales, and 15% of buyers were more likely to open an inMail message from sales, further evidence that customer acquisition is a two-pronged attack.

Enabling marketing and sales leaders to meet periodically to talk strategically about audiences and to align on targeting and create a unified GTM strategy is the first step to achieving the above. Unifying your GTM motions is what unlocks revenue potential. Hence, if aligned teams drive on average 27% faster profit growth, then reducing the friction between the two departments is paramount - am I right Will and Jeff?

Two - 

Marketing should reach 100% of category buyers: made up of the 5% of ‘in-market’ buyers as well as the 95% of ‘out-market’ buyers (statistical B2B averages).

If you haven’t got a multi-billion dollar spaceship (or media budget) to reach your buyers, you need a different weapon that will get you noticed by that 100%. Use creativity to make a noise, break convention, get noticed and be remembered. If marketing can get customers to turn their heads and make you sticky in their memories, it’s the perfect priming to pass on to an expert sales team for conversion.

Sales teams should focus their efforts on the in-market 5% (MQL’s). We all know that customers aren’t pushed down any funnels. They jump into that 5% space when they’re good and ready. So, once they are well primed and qualified by marketing it's about being welcomed by a sales team that fully understands their specific needs.

Three -

An accurate understanding of where customers are in the buying process means serving appropriate messaging in equally appropriate places. The strange dichotomy here is that we have a shared belief that top-of-funnel activity should be creative, bold and memorable yet all funnels seem to lead to a PPT deck made on a tray table. We must treat both ends with the respect they deserve and agree that medium and message are key to a coherent, compelling buyer journey. Pitch decks, partnership propositions, demo videos, explainers videos, testimonials, White papers, push pineapple shake the tree - there is more than one way to skin a…..alien? And much like in the film, unique challenges require unique solutions and with no two clients being the same it’s important to equip your team with unique, bespoke and effective sales enablement that’s designed to convert.

The disconnect between sales and marketing may not have become a box-office classic, but there is so much potential in the transformative power of closer, more coherent collaboration. With a few tweaks, they too might enjoy a victory march across the Nevada desert, cigars in hand, before being embraced by a US president. OK, OK, we’re stretching things…it might be the CFO. But ironically, to be truly successful sales and marketing should never have an independence day.

Sources

https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/b2b-sales-omnichannel-everywhere-every-time

https://www.marketingweek.com/the-circles-of-doom-quantifying-the-misalignment-of-b2b-marketing-and-sales/