Sales and marketing alignment shortens the buying cycle  

In an earlier article, mapping the buyer journey, we dove into the process innovative 3D printer brands can follow to document their customers’ path to purchase. For the fourth installment in our series, we’ll uncover the full value of sales and marketing alignment.

When your marketing and sales folks step out of their silos and clearly see both their mutual goals and the path they’ll take to get there, their individual and collective efforts become a lot more effective.

When you align your marketing and sales teams, your sales cycle gets shorter and your marketing efforts are easier to track and measure. 

The model below illustrates the challenge created when sales and marketing teams operate as separate divisions. Each tells your brand story in their own separate way. Your salespeople feel they have no need for your marketing materials and your marketing folks see the sales team as renegades who will not toe the company line.

Marketing tosses prospects over the wall to sales. The sales division works to close the deal with no help from marketing.

When you shift your company perspective to see marketing and sales as interlocking parts rather than separate divisions, the benefits go right to the bottom line. Sales and marketing alignment looks less like the above mode and more like the one below. Your marketing people will continue to concentrate efforts on the front end of the buyer journey, and your salespeople will remain the closers. But both departments are engaged and support one another through every step of the buyer journey.

Meaningful marketing and sales alignment engages the sales team in shaping the voice of your brand, gaining their support for your marketing materials before they’re developed, and ensuring they’ll actually use them. Your marketing team will better understand your actual customers, not just archetypes. The newfound cohesion will allow you to better track how well your marketing is working through each phase of the buyer journey.

Move the needle

Think of sales and marketing alignment as a spectrum, not a pass-or-fail equation. Wherever you currently fall on the spectrum, there is always room for improvement. Even moving the needle incrementally can yield big results. Dedicating the time and resources to regularly assess and address sales and marketing alignment is always a good investment.

Next up: Educate, inspire, reassure

Sales and marketing have an equal, shared responsibility to help guide the customer through the buying process. Next up in our series on sales and marketing alignment for B2B 3D printer brands, we’ll cover the three things all sales and marketing materials must do: educate, inspire, reassure.

Other articles in this series:

Part 7: Taking market share from the big guys

Part 6: Educate, inspire, reassure

Part 5: The power of positioning

Part 3: Mapping the buyer journey

Part 2: Long-shot, convertible and available customers

Part 1: Influencers and validators and deciders, oh my

About Toolbox Creative:

Toolbox Creative is a B2B Brand Engineering firm, helping the 3D Printing,  Ag Tech and Clean Tech industries change the world. We distill complex technologies into powerful identity systems, websites and marketing tactics that align sales and marketing efforts, create lasting impact and build brand love.