January 22, 2018 | 1 minute read

How to Align Sales and Marketing Teams During Your Sales Kickoff

Passle

One of the key objectives of any sales kickoff is to make sure the company is aligned with the goals and values set by leadership.

As you can see from below, aligning sales and marketing brings a real business opportunity however it is still a challenge for most firms. It occurred to me whilst talking to a client about their SKO that the diagram below can help.

We use the digram with our clients to help experts understand (1) why they should produce content (2) what to write about that will add value. The questions you need to answer are:

What are your clients' sector/industry?
What are their challenges?
What is your product/service?
How can you help address these challenges?

I would advise holding a session during your SKO with your sales and marketing teams to fill in each area of the 'cross hairs' diagram. You can then use this as a reference point for your aligned approached going forward. For sales it will also quickly highlight their level of qualification since understanding the 'challenges' of clients requires conversation and research.

During 2017 personalisation and authenticity became forefront of mind for all marketers due to demands of customers. Aligning your teams will enable those closest to the clients (sales/presales/consultants) to produce content that resonates with your clients but also feedback to marketing to help execute broader plans.

Something interesting happens at organizations where effective marketing and sales alignment occurs – they win. According to a report by Aberdeen Research, companies that are best-in-class at aligning marketing and sales experienced an average of 20% growth in annual revenue, compared to a 4% decline in laggard organizations.