Marketing and sales teams must coordinate effectively in order to drive 38% higher sales win rates and increased revenue for brands. This approach, known as marketing, should also bring increased win rates among sales staff members and improved team morale across both teams.

This process replaces traditional sales funnels with an aligned workflow to enhance both customer experience and brand revenue. Read these tips on effective sales and marketing alignment:

1. Shared Goals and Metrics

An essential aspect of sales and marketing alignment is making sure teams are all working toward similar goals. Marketing KPIs should align with sales objectives, while both teams work towards generating new customers together. Tools like Ruler Analytics allow this collaboration by tracking leads across full buyer journeys while measuring how individual marketing efforts drive revenue growth.

Traditionally, sales and marketing have operated independently from each other. Leads generated by marketing would then be passed off to sales but linger unacted upon; creating an awkward experience for customers while making it hard to demonstrate ROI.

To counter this, establish centralized communication channels with regular distribution cadences so key stakeholders are always up-to-date, helping prevent gossip, reduce inefficiency and enhance transparency.

2. Regular Meetings

Maintaining open lines of communication between sales and marketing teams is critical to creating sales/marketing alignment. Both groups should meet regularly to assess progress, share insights/analyses, as well as discuss any problems they’re encountering.

Working together, both teams can make sure not to miss out on valuable growth opportunities. Furthermore, alignment results in a more coherent go-to-market strategy which ensures the message stays consistent across channels.

Before the Alyce team utilized account-based marketing (ABM), they utilized a “spray and pray” model of targeting their target market with gifts without knowing who exactly were ideal customers or how best to reach them. ABM allows the sales and marketing teams to collaborate on creating content tailored specifically to address buyer persona needs, leading to more qualified leads and faster sales cycles.

3. Shared Messaging

Teams should choose technology platforms that work seamlessly together. Otherwise, it may be challenging to track performance or share information quickly.

An integrated marketing and sales department can also help establish a cohesive narrative for their brands, by using consistent language, vocabulary and terminology when talking with prospects and customers. This ensures message consistency is maintained for maximum brand credibility and customer trust.

To achieve true sales and marketing alignment, teams must have a shared understanding of their goals, metrics, constraints and strategies. This can be accomplished through regular team meetings as well as creating strong bonds among team members; seating them together may help foster empathy and foster better teamwork.

4. Technology Integration

Harmonizing marketing and sales technology is critical to creating effective alignment. Gone are the days of point solutions that may perform their specific function well but fail to provide an integrated view of customer data and engagement.

Teams benefiting from strong alignment can use closed-loop feedback to assess market and buyer behavior and quickly adapt strategies in pursuit of new opportunities, leading to improved lead generation, sales productivity and revenue growth.

Nick Bennett, Director of Evangelism for Alyce, and Christina Nalband, Senior Sales Director are experienced field marketers. In our podcast episode (The First 100 Days), they provided some invaluable advice for effective sales-marketing alignment. Check it out wherever you get your podcasts!

5. Shared Content

Shared content refers to content specifically created to facilitate sharing across various channels and platforms, using hashtags, images, texts or any other visual elements which encourage social media share rates.

Effective shared content optimization can help marketers gain more visibility and traction on various social platforms, as well as ensure content meets target audience criteria and can easily be reused in future publications.

Many forms of shared content include Instagram Stories or Snapchat stories as well as news updates that provide instantaneous connections and create a sense of community among consumers. When creating shared content for consumption by others, remember to always ensure it serves a clear purpose that resonates with your target audience.