Lauren Alt-Kishpaugh
VP of Marketing
It’s hard for sales and marketing teams to succeed if they’re not tied at the hip, consistently communicating with each other and sharing lessons learned. This is especially important when it comes to account-based marketing (ABM), for a variety of reasons.
In this blog, we’ll show you how to improve alignment between your sales and marketing teams to maximize your chances for consistently successful ABM campaigns.
Breaking Down the Silos
Historically, sales and marketing departments have operated in silos, each with distinct objectives and strategies. Marketing teams were focused on generating marketing qualified leads (MQLs) and enhancing brand awareness, while sales teams concentrated on closing deals and ensuring customer retention. This division often led to misalignment in messaging, metrics, and overall goals, obstructing the efficiency of customer journey mapping and lead conversion processes.
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Most businesses have realized the significant costs this misalignment creates, and have pivoted accordingly. But for those that still experience friction between these groups, fostering a culture of collaboration and communication between sales and marketing teams is critical. This involves establishing shared goals, integrating CRM systems for better data sharing and visibility, and developing joint strategies for lead generation and follow-up. Regular meetings and feedback loops between teams can also help address misalignment issues, ensuring both departments are working towards the same objectives.
The Link Between Alignment and ABM Outcomes
ABM represents a strategic pivot from broad-based marketing efforts to a focused approach that targets high-value accounts identified by the sales team. This methodology aligns marketing and sales around common goals, concentrating resources and campaigns on accounts with the greatest potential revenue impact.
Effective ABM execution requires sales and marketing to work in tandem, sharing insights on potential customers' pain points, preferences, and buyer’s journey stages. Marketing departments can then tailor their content marketing and digital marketing initiatives to address these insights, supporting the sales process more effectively. This alignment not only streamlines lead generation but also enhances lead quality, improving conversion rates and ultimately contributing to top-line growth.
Postal's Platform: Facilitating Sales and Marketing Alignment
Postal's all-in-one offline engagement platform stands out as an essential tool for sales and marketing teams, especially within the ABM framework. Postal simplifies the execution of personalized marketing and sales strategies, enabling teams to send customized gifts, direct mail, and branded merchandise directly from the platform. This capability ensures that high-value accounts receive a consistent, tailored experience.
With Postal, sales and marketing teams can easily:
- Access a global marketplace filled with unique, locally sourced items and experiences, perfect for creating memorable touchpoints with potential customers.
- Automate the delivery of personalized gifts and content at critical stages of the buyer journey, enhancing lead nurturing and conversion efforts.
- Leverage integrations with popular CRM and marketing automation platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Marketo, ensuring seamless data flow and tracking of engagement metrics.
By providing a comprehensive suite of tools for personalized engagement, Postal helps bridge the gap between sales and marketing, ensuring that every interaction with potential customers is impactful and aligned with broader business objectives. Try a free demo and align your sales and marketing efforts with Postal—where personalized engagement meets strategic precision.
Strategies for Enhancing Sales and Marketing Alignment
Here are several proven strategies for keeping your sales and marketing teams rowing in the same direction:
1. Establish Common Goals and Metrics
The foundation of sales and marketing alignment lies in the establishment of common goals and metrics that resonate across both departments. Defining clear, measurable goals such as specific revenue targets, conversion rates, and customer retention metrics is crucial. Additionally, utilizing CRM tools like HubSpot not only facilitates the tracking of these performance indicators but also ensures that both sales and marketing teams are in sync.
2. Implement Regular Communication and Feedback Loops
Facilitating regular meetings and establishing continuous feedback loops between sales and marketing teams are essential for maintaining alignment. Tools like Slack offer a platform for real-time communication, allowing team members to share successes, discuss challenges, and collaboratively adjust strategies. This ongoing exchange of insights and feedback is instrumental in refining lead scoring models, optimizing the handoff process, and ensuring alignment on follow-up strategies.
3. Leverage Marketing Automation and CRM Integration
The integration of marketing automation tools with CRM systems effectively bridges the gap between lead generation and sales enablement. This integration equips salespeople with valuable context regarding a lead’s interactions with marketing campaigns, enabling more informed and impactful sales calls. Furthermore, it streamlines workflows for lead handoff and follow-up, ensuring that no potential customer is overlooked.
4. Focus on Educational and Enablement Initiatives
Equipping sales reps with the necessary knowledge and tools to effectively engage potential customers is paramount. This includes providing detailed insights into marketing campaigns, access to content that supports the sales process, and training on social media platforms like LinkedIn for sales enablement. It’s equally important for marketing departments to have a thorough understanding of the sales cycle, tailoring their efforts to support sales at every stage.
5. Keep Track of the Right Metrics, Then Optimize Accordingly
Setting and monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) for both sales and marketing that reflect the success of the ABM strategy is essential. Metrics such as win rates, sales qualified lead (SQL) conversion rates, and new customer acquisition costs provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of sales and marketing alignment. Regularly reviewing these KPIs allows businesses to identify areas for improvement and adjust their strategies accordingly, ensuring continuous optimization of their sales and marketing efforts.
By implementing these strategies and leveraging ABM, businesses can significantly enhance the alignment between their sales and marketing teams, improving lead generation, customer engagement, and revenue growth.
Unlock the Full Potential of Your ABM Strategy with Postal
Ready to dissolve the barriers between sales and marketing in your ABM efforts? Postal's all-in-one offline engagement platform is designed to bring your teams together, aligning their efforts for greater impact. Request a free Postal demo today and take the first step towards a more integrated, effective approach to your ABM goals.
