Let’s be real. You and I both know the “secrets” of sales and marketing alignment. They’ve been out there for the taking since time immemorial.
Are you still in the dark? Searching for the answers? Okay. Here ya go:
- Start Talking. Begin by getting the marketing and sales chiefs in a room to hammer out some mutually beneficial strategies and define what winning looks like.
- Ensure Teams Are Communicating. Make sure sales and marketing teams meet regularly so sales can keep marketing in the loop with real talk from the front lines — i.e., what prospects and customers are actually saying. Turn these into brainstorming sessions where voices from both sides are heard, and quality and informed marketing efforts can then be devised.
- Focus On Your Data. Does marketing have a blog that’s blowing up with views and engagement? That’s sales gold. Share it with sales so they can fold it into prospecting conversations and demos. It’s a no-brainer because it’s hard evidence that your audience is eating it up.
If you have never considered these solutions, I’m happy I might have been able to help you consider how to fix some of the issues you are facing.
But as B2B sales and marketing alignment has been a core focus of my work and interest for years now, I can confidently say those “solutions” are table stakes.
They are simple recommendations that suggest two groups with a common goal should make the effort to speak to one another.
Notice I said “should” make the effort speak to one another. Because in my experience, they do not.
Wait, Sales and Marketing Groups Don’t Speak With One Another?
Correct. More often than not, the basic yet game-changing recommendation to simply communicate 一which by the way, has the potential to drive revenue through the roof 一 goes ignored.
And it happens everywhere 一 big firms, small startups, it doesn’t matter. Why does this occur? I have my thoughts and, where applicable, some stats to back them up.
- Lack of Communication. From top to bottom, absolutely no one is talking to one another. Harvard Business Review points to research that says 90 percent of sales and marketing professionals report misalignment when it comes to strategy, process, culture, and content. That’s practically the entire gig! The very act of contributing to this research study shows the participants are fully aware that lack of communication is a problem. So why isn’t it being fixed? Oh, yeah. Because no one is talking to one another.
- Lack of Buy-In From Leaders Capable of Selling It To Their Teams. Sales and marketing alignment just doesn’t happen if leaders on both sides don’t buy in. Even when Gartner research shows half of sales and marketing leaders fully recognize that failure to align negatively impacts lead generation, they still can’t or won’t make time for it.
- Straight-Up Politics. How this manifests in different organizations varies, but how it impacts the potential of success doesn’t really require additional explanation.
- Differing Compensation Structures. Simply stated, leaders on both sides of the coin are paid and/or bonused for reaching different goals and milestones. So why would they focus on anything but what gets them paid even when it’s to the detriment of a common goal?
Old School’s Out: The Potential of Artificial Intelligence in Sales and Marketing Alignment
The roadblocks mentioned above are why we need something new. As a fan of new ideas, and as it relates to today’s topic, I’m not interested in implementing what’s old, evident and prone to failure, because that equates to “playing the game” when I’m interested in changing it.
Still, I know what I can potentially influence and what I cannot. I don’t have an idea or solution that will single-handedly overhaul how individuals choose (or choose not to) communicate or how they sell ideas or navigate politics.
That’s a mountain of deep-rooted habits and “…but we’ve always done it this way!” attitudes I cannot change.
“…but we’ve always done it this way!”
And that leads us to everyone’s favorite topic 一 AI. I want to talk about artificial intelligence in sales and marketing alignment and how using it can change the game.
AI isn’t just a shiny new toy, nor does it require a company-wide, tech stack rip n’ replace in order to implement. Instead, it should truly just be thought of as a conduit to getting great things done fast. And who doesn’t want that?
Okay. Here we go.
AI in Sales and Marketing Alignment: Clarifying Lead Qualification
The chasm often seen between sales and marketing when it comes to lead qualification sometimes seems as wide as the Grand Canyon.
The disconnect is particularly wild when one considers that both sales and marketing groups are actually aiming for the same goal: revenue. But often, their respective approaches to meeting that goal might as well have been developed on different planets.
“The disconnect is particularly wild when one considers that both sales and marketing groups are actually aiming for the same goal: revenue. But often, their respective approaches to meeting that goal might as well have been developed on different planets.”
You know the story. Sales is focused on closing deals quickly and hitting this quarter’s targets, while marketing is balancing short-term lead generation with longer-term plays — like building the brand, warming up tomorrow’s buyers and turning interest into action across the customer journey. Growth is the goal of both teams, but they’re looking at the same north star through different telescopes.
That’s why it comes as no surprise that agreeing on a shared definition of what constitutes a lead becomes a challenge.
Well, that, and you know, as we’ve already discussed, no one is talking to each other.
The solution? AI-powered sales and marketing alignment. With AI ironing out the wrinkles, the result is more than just good vibes. It creates clarity around what qualifies as an MQL or SQL, which leads to better handoffs, and ultimately, more closed deals.
How Do You Clarify Leads for Sales and Marketing Using AI? Here’s How It’s Done.
- Gather Your Data: Dig into your web analytics to identify every action taken by users who converted into customers 一 we’re talking the content viewed, the path they navigated and the pages that captured the most form fills. You also want to gather customer interaction details from your CRM and find out what social content has received the most engagement.
- Tap AI – ChatGPT: Harness OpenAI’s crown jewel to find common attributes that position both sales and marketing for wins like solid identification of where a prospect lives in the funnel, development of a dynamic lead scoring system based on content engagement and the immediate identification of cross-sell and up-sell opportunities. (Editors Note: Lead scoring isn’t dead. Sure, someone checking out your site doesn’t mean they’re ready to buy or have the authority to, but lead scoring can still be useful when implemented effectively. I’ll talk more about this in a future article.)
- Why This Rocks: This is the type of data everyone can get behind because it helps everyone produce results. AI delivers insights very directly, too, saving salespeople from having to log into six systems and piece together scattered data. It also inches the “I only make decisions using my gut!” crowd toward updating their mindsets. It’s objective data, Joe. Why are you arguing with it? Let’s just give it a try, okay?
- Why This is Different: Without AI, you’re stuck in the same loop of misaligned objectives and missed opportunities because, again, *sigh* no one is talking to one another.
- Possible Pitfalls: Humans do have to oversee this process 一 it’s not just “set and forget.” Resistance to new tech and ways of doing things can also derail the process.
- The Hidden Bonus: When AI gets sales and marketing teams to collaborate, they start to bond and create a more unified, focused and effective relationship.
Balancing Short-Term Hustle with Long-Term Vision Using AI
Within the sales and marketing tango, sales teams go fast and and hard while marketing makes moves with the expressway leading into next year in mind.
Why the different beats? It’s just the nature of the work.
Sales often requires confident and direct action with prospects to close deals. Hitting quota means taking initiative, not waiting around.
Meanwhile, marketing thinks and acts with a broader perspective 一 creating strategies and content that reach a larger targeted audience with the goal of nurturing them over time.
So, how do we get both teams to harmonize? That’s where AI comes in, offering a more appealing tune to rock out to.
How Do You Balance Sales and Marketing Priorities Using AI? Here’s How It’s Done.
- Gather Your Data: That diverse goldmine of insights found across CRM tools, website analytics and social media.
- Tap AI – IBM Watson, Tableau, ChatGPT: These AI tools can analyze customer behavior, anticipate trends and help identify high-potential leads, right before visualizing it all for you. This means sales get immediate and actionable insights and marketing gains a deeper understanding of long-term customer trends and preferences. For sales this also means optimized sales pitches, improved management of territories and solid “ready to buy” signals based on data. Marketing gets data-backed content optimization recommendations, enhanced audience segmentation insights and deeper visibility into the customer journey.
- Why This Rocks: It’s a win-win served up by unbiased AI-insights that respect both the sales sprint and the marketing marathon.
- Why This is Different: We’re making next-level decisions based on a blend of both the immediate and what’s on the horizon before any of it happens.
- Possible Pitfalls: Same old, same old. If a fear of data or trying new things persists, the magic of AI is stalled.
- The Hidden Bonus: When AI dissolves the pesky old barriers, it opens the door for innovative thinking and creativity that can kickstart processes like alignment of marketing and sales with conversational AI at scale, ABM powered by AI, and more.
AI in Sales and Marketing Alignment: Maximizing Customer Feedback Like Never Before
You know those golden customer insights that sales takes in from the front lines day after day? The pain points, the praises and recommendations for improvement?
Well, because no one is talking to one another, it stays in the sales silo. It’s just as much the fault of the marketing team which fails to regularly ask for it. It’s a full-on communication breakdown.
And this feedback, remember, isn’t just random noise dropped during discovery or sales support calls. It’s the voice of the market — real signals surfaced in conversation about how your product is perceived, where it succeeds or where it’s falling short.
But per usual, both groups suffer the consequences of zero communication. Insights that could easily shift a marketing campaign or refine a sales pitch end up dying on the vine.
How to fix this? Well, that’s where AI comes in.
How Do You Use AI To Maximize Customer Feedback? Here’s How It’s Done.
- Gather Your Data: Emails tracked in your CRM, notes provided on prospect profiles, online reviews, social media chatter, calls and emails with customer support and customer success.
- Tap AI: Salesforce Einstein, Lexalytics, IBM Watson, ChatGPT. With their powers combined, these applications act like Captain Planet. Actually, they probably act more like like the Rosetta Stone for translating insights into action. Using AI to analyze all this data benefits both sales and marketing by turning raw information into actionable insight.
- Why This Rocks: Using AI here provides an objective reality check. It means sales and marketing activities can now operate from the same source of truth which drives alignment. It also nurtures along a culture of data-driven decision-making.
- Why This is Different: Forget operating off of last quarter’s results report. This use case drops the latest and greatest customer feedback straight into sales and marketing strategy meetings for discussion and integration into imminent future plans.
- Possible Pitfalls: All the insights this use case provides are only of value if they are paid attention to and championed by sales and marketing leaders.
- The Hidden Bonus: Using AI to make the most of customer feedback draws a hard line between companies that genuinely value what customers say and those that assume they already know what matters most.
Using Artificial Intelligence In Sales and Marketing Means Rethinking How You Use Data
Using data to align sales and marketing isn’t a new idea, but let’s be honest – it has never really taken off as it should have.
Remember when I mentioned the no-brainer idea of leveraging a high-performing blog post for sales enablement and outreach activity? More often than not, recommendations like that get buried in inboxes never to be seen again.
But AI changes the game. Using data is no longer about spot-checking for low-hanging fruit opportunities that go nowhere due to lack of communication.
AI isn’t just tossing out insights; it’s delivering the kind of sharp, contextually rich information that sales and marketing teams can really get behind.
We need to break free from old ruts. AI offers sales and marketing a path forward, stripping away guesswork, egos and fear.
And yeah, change is tough — I get it. But AI is the edge. The teams that embrace it now won’t just work faster, they’ll win faster.
And the ones that don’t? The longer they hesitate, the harder it will hit when they realize how far behind they are.
