BtoB Article: The time is now for sales and marketing to align

This article in appeared in BtoB.  To read it in it’s entirety, click here.   The following are excerpts.

By James W. Obermayer Executive Director, Sales Lead Management Association
Story posted: January 17, 2022 - 6:01 am EDT

There comes a time in the life of every movement when its ideas and principles it represents catch fire, a point of critical mass. For sales and marketing alignment, that time has come.

This year, the rewards for those who align their sales and marketing programs and departments will be as dramatic as the failures of those who refuse…

"If CRM has been the drumbeat of business, marketing automation is the full orchestra."  

With marketing automation reaching a crescendo, marketing no longer has an excuse to refrain from taking its rightful place as an equal co-creator of wealth.

"With marketing automation, where before there was timidity, there is now bravado. But marketing as a discipline has to change to make this happen…."

As I have said too many times to marketers, salespeople and members of the Sales Lead Management Association:

"Marketing managers must spend money on things that work and let their competitors spend money on everything else."

This mandate can be broken down into three directives: Go to the full article at B2B
This year will be recognized as a period of stark transition and growth for marketing, as surely as 2001-02 was with CRM technology for sales. Acceptance of sales lead management will reach its tipping point through the enlightenment of C-level managers and the desperate cooperation of both sales and marketing.

A tool with tremendous capability, called marketing automation, is bringing the two (sales and marketing)  together.

To read the entire article go to BtoB’s January 17th issue or read it on-line: click here.

Comments

[Chris Ryan]

Jim, your B2B Online article is timely and highly relevant for B2B marketers. We have been talking about marketing and sales alignment for years. Untold amounts of money and time have been wasted because of the inability to bring the sales and marketing groups together effectively. In a competitive business environment, it is imperative to have the two key players in the go-to-market strategy aligned and optimized.

Chris Ryan
Fusion Marketing Partners

[James Obermayer]

Thanks for your thoughts Chris. The alignment starts with the willingness of the two parties to lay down their individual self-interest and work toward the self-interest of the company and its customers. It works best with a VP of Sales and Marketing.