The relationship between the sales director and CMO should be among the most cohesive parts of a business. The importance of creating a seamless digital experience for consumers ought to be driving the departments together. However, as Conor Shaw (pictured below), MD of EMEA, Marketo writes, the reality seems to be a step has been missed in many organisations and both sides are still feeling somewhat alienated by disconnected goals and a misunderstanding of the different disciplines.

We’re familiar with the traditional differences, for instance, marketing’s projects are often long-term whereas sales move at a fast pace; sales worries about meeting quarterly goals whereas marketing prioritises the wider strategy. The question is whether these discrepancies are relevant to the marketing and sales teams of today.

Spoiler alert, they’re not.

We’re living in a world where the customer is in charge and both teams should be focussed on harmonising for the customer’s sake. Most successful businesses will agree alignment between marketing and sales is potentially the largest opportunity for improving business performance. When marketing and sales teams unite they dramatically improve marketing ROI, sales productivity, and, most importantly, top-line growth.

Bridging the gap

The good news is that technology can facilitate this alignment, joining the two teams together to ensure success in today’s customer driven world. The customer isn’t a single entity in B2B and sales must work with marketing to address this better. But the structure of departments need to change in order to capitalise on the technology. This will not only reduce friction between the two functions but actually drive real results.

Marketing automation presents huge opportunities for sales teams to tailor their approach, particularly across B2B when they will targeting four or five decision makers. Sales teams must be aware of the information the customer has already been furnished with so that the experience moves forward no matter what channel they are communicating with them on. Segmenting communication to the right people at the right time in the buyer's journey, from first touch to post-sale, across multiple channels is becoming more of a reality every day.

While marketing and sales teams have long been doing account targeting, the technology was just recently introduced to enable marketers to target the accounts that matter most and will drive the most revenue potential for their business. There are a number of point solutions available today, but many of these have to be stitched together or integrated with a lead-centric platform – neither of which offer a coordinated, scalable way to reach, engage, and manage accounts.

Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

Conor Shaw, MD of EMEA, Marketo

As each day passes, B2B marketers are hearing more about Account-Based Marketing (ABM) from every direction. These tools help to bring together sales and marketing teams to target key accounts in a highly coordinated fashion. Managed well, it’s the sole solution capable of providing account teams with all of the necessary tools to discover, manage and analyse the most lucrative accounts.

A team should be able to segment these accounts into lists based on a number of factors such as industry, company size, geographic location, and more and score them based on factors like firmographics, cumulative behaviours, or even predictive capabilities. The right ABM solution will allow you to do all of these strategic activities within a single platform—with access to the data and database you use for traditional broad-based marketing

Another key ABM capability is engaging the right people from high-value accounts at multiple touch points throughout the buyer’s journey. This translates into interacting with key decision-makers from named accounts across any channel and device with the right message—from ads to email to your website, and on desktop to mobile, and beyond.

To do this, sales and marketing teams need to work together more effectively in a highly coordinated way. The technology is now available to help bridge the gap between these two departments and build the foundations of an efficient, collaborative process. With these essentials in place, you’ll be set up to successfully execute an account-focused strategy with the right targets, tactics, and analytics.