Achieving sales and marketing alignment is one of the building products channel’s most important goals. After all, when these two team functions work together seamlessly – the result will drive revenue growth – while enhancing customer experience.
Why miss valuable opportunities? And continue to tolerate inefficiencies?
Sales and Marketing Alignment Defined
Sales and marketing alignment celebrates the collaboration between two vital teams to achieve common business goals. When optimized, both groups can better target customers. Nurture more leads. And close greater quantities of sales.
Achieving this alignment requires more than mere communication. Rather, the strategy requires shared objectives. Clear roles. And an intimate understanding of each team’s strengths.
Why Does Sales and Marketing Alignment Matter?
Misalignment between sales and marketing can lead to significant challenges… especially relevant in the installed building products sector. Pain-points traditionally rise with operational inefficiencies. Weaker leads. And inconsistent brand-promise messaging.
Ultimately… lost sales.
On the other hand, alignment contributes to a range of tangible benefits:
- Increased Sales and Profitability: With both teams working in sync – they can identify high-quality prospects and build brand awareness more effectively – driving building material sales.
- Improved Customer Experience: A unified approach ensures consistent messaging… helping to build better trust and engagement with audiences.
- Faster Decision-Making: Aligned teams can quickly respond to market shifts… adopting customer feedback and seizing emerging opportunities.
- Stronger Team Culture: Collaboration fosters a culture of teamwork – enhancing accuracy – and mutual respect.
Key Components of Sales and Marketing Alignment
Alignment improves when several critical practice areas are prioritized:
- Leadership Commitment: Alignment starts at the top. Stakeholders must recognize the strategic importance of this mission. Most importantly, ensuring that the process transcends individual goals.
- Clear Ownership: Sales and marketing teams can better understand – who owns what – in the customer journey. Clear roles for lead generation, nurturing and conversion help to minimize overlap. While avoiding confusion.
- Shared Strategic Plans: Learn how to collaborate on a unified go-to-market strategy. Which will include market segmentation, brand positioning and audience awareness objectives.
- Regular Communication: Open, transparent and shared milestone targeting – between sales and marketing teams – facilitates that everyone remains in harmony with the strategy, goals and incremental progress metrics.
- Continuous Learning: Best practice allows for a “learning organization” to benefit from each other’s experiences… refining their process based on feedback and analysis.
- Reporting and Metrics: Data-driven insights are essential in tracking performance. It’s critical to establish shared key performance indicators (KPIs) for nurturing both teams, to remain empowered. And navigating toward common goals.
When Sales and Marketing Aren’t Aligned
Misalignment mustn’t be ignored as consequences will continue to rise in significance:
- Silos and Inefficiencies: Sales and marketing will tend to operate in separate silos – causing duplication of efforts – and poor communication.
- Missed Opportunities: Resulting in unqualified leads and lost chances for conversion… due to lack of coordination.
- Inconsistent Messaging: Conflicting messages from marketing and sales can confuse audiences. And erode brand equity.
- Reduced Profitability: Lack of alignment leads to inefficiencies and wasted resources, resulting in a lower return on investment for building a unique selling proposition.
How to Improve Sales and Marketing Alignment
Consider these ten “commitment strategies” to foster better collaboration between sales and marketing:
- Create a Unified Go-to-Market Strategy: Work together in developing a shared vision, mission and set of objectives – to ensure that both teams understand – and “buy into” the strategy.
- Define and Align on Metrics: Establish shared KPIs, such as lead conversion rates and revenue targets. Continue to track progress and maintain full transparency.
- Implement Joint Planning: Regularly schedule mutually-rewarding sessions to collaborate on campaign planning, product launches and pipeline reviews.
- Develop Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs): Define and refine the characteristics of “ideal customers” together… ensuring both teams are targeting the right audiences. And seizing unmet opportunities.
- Integrate CRM and Marketing Automation Tools: Smooth integration between CRM platforms and marketing automation tools help to track lead scores and highlight important customer interactions seamlessly.
Do you know the single most important
metric to identify “buyer intent”?
- Create a Service Level Agreement (SLA): Define clear expectations for both teams… including the number of leads that marketing will provide. And priority timelines for sales follow-up.
- Focus on Content Collaboration: Involve sales in content creation – to maximize the effectiveness of marketing materials – for addressing real customer questions. And overcoming typical prospect objections.
- Establish Feedback Loops: Encourage continuous feedback between sales and marketing to improve lead quality. And messaging relevance.
- Provide Cross-Training: Educate both teams about each other’s processes – and incremental milestones – to enhance mutual understanding and cooperation.
- Celebrate Shared Wins: Recognizing and celebrating successes helps to foster positive attitudes and build a collaborative culture.
The Importance of Alignment in Building Materials Marketing
In the installed building products channel, sales process traditionally involves multiple decision-makers and long nurturing cycles… making it essential for both teams to work closely – ensuring that messaging, targeting and customer needs – are aligned at every stage of the process.
As Richard Enriquez, Director of Marketing and eCommerce at White River, a leader in decorative mouldings, carvings and interior paneling products, points out:
“In my experience, sales and marketing alignment is critical to any company’s success. We have focused on becoming a leading eCommerce business while at the same time continuing to rely on the strength of our traditional distribution channel and the relationships we’ve built there over decades. I think we’ve done a really good job of finding the right balance with our online and offline channels, and one complements the other. I believe our integration of sales and marketing, though not perfect, has come a long way, from driving brand awareness and leads to closing leads and creating loyalty and lifetime customer value.“
Marketing Team and Agencies: Get out of the office!
Marketing team members should invest periodic time in the field – beyond trade shows – engaging with customers and distribution partners, to better understand their issues and opportunities in real-world scenarios.
Increasing problem solving skills, the user-experience gives marketing team members a better understanding of the “buyer’s journey”… while creating a stronger bond between individuals on the sales team.
Move Forward
In the building products industry, achieving strong sales and marketing alignment is essential for enhancing collaboration – streamlining operations – and creating a cohesive approach to customer engagement.
Whether you’re simply starting to focus on this idea or expanding existing efforts… our team has been recognized for expertise on Sales & Marketing Alignment for some 35 years! We’d welcome the opportunity to discuss time-tested programs and process with forward-thinking leaders. Send a message to Steve at sk@kleberandassociates.com and consider a brief chat at IBS/KBIS to get the conversation started.
