{"id":17159,"date":"2023-09-22T00:00:44","date_gmt":"2023-09-22T00:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sandler.com\/?p=17159"},"modified":"2023-09-22T14:31:42","modified_gmt":"2023-09-22T14:31:42","slug":"aligning-sales-marketing-crm-success-four-keys-motivating-sales-team-embrace-system-create-data-driven-accountability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/aligning-sales-marketing-crm-success-four-keys-motivating-sales-team-embrace-system-create-data-driven-accountability\/","title":{"rendered":"Aligning Sales and Marketing for CRM Success: Four Keys for Motivating Your Sales Team to Embrace the System\u2026 and Create Data-Driven Accountability"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Sales and marketing alignment<\/strong>: leaders talk about it. They say it\u2019s what they want. They notice when it\u2019s not happening. But they don\u2019t always offer a clear explanation of what sales and marketing alignment really is.<\/p>\n<p>For most of the teams we talk to, this is a major problem. It\u2019s the reason that the goal of harmonious cooperation between these two departments remains elusive for so many organizations. Nobody knows for sure what alignment between sales and marketing looks like. They just have a gut feeling that it isn\u2019t happening.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_79_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/aligning-sales-marketing-crm-success-four-keys-motivating-sales-team-embrace-system-create-data-driven-accountability\/#Sales_and_Marketing_Alignment_What_Is_It\" >Sales and Marketing Alignment: What Is It?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/aligning-sales-marketing-crm-success-four-keys-motivating-sales-team-embrace-system-create-data-driven-accountability\/#Read_More\" >Read More<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Sales_and_Marketing_Alignment_What_Is_It\"><\/span><strong>Sales and Marketing Alignment: What Is It?<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Here\u2019s our definition of sales and marketing alignment.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Sales and marketing alignment is a <strong>shared understanding<\/strong> and <strong>agreement<\/strong> on target markets, ideal customer profiles, messaging, value propositions, and definitions of marketing qualified leads and sales qualified leads. It includes <strong>close collaboration<\/strong> and <strong>coordination<\/strong> between teams to ensure a seamless buyer experience from lead generation to qualifying to retaining clients, with smooth handoffs between each. True alignment requires <strong>shared responsibility<\/strong> to drive business growth, <strong>feedback loops<\/strong>, and <strong>continuous refinement of strategies<\/strong> to adjust to the market.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That\u2019s not where most organizations are. But, as a marketing professional with 25 years of experience in working with sales teams, I know it is where your organization could be.<\/p>\n<p>By aligning sales and marketing efforts, organizations can benefit from increased efficiency, improved lead quality, higher conversion rates, better customer targeting, fewer wasted efforts, and ultimately, increased revenue. And the test of whether sales and marketing are aligned looks like this:<\/p>\n<p><strong>People from both teams choose, based on their personal experience, to use the CRM as a tool for moving revenue opportunities forward.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If no one needs to be talked into using the CRM, if everyone is using it optimally as a collaborative tool, you\u2019re in alignment.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re a sales leader, and you would bet your paycheck that your team would use the CRM optimally even if you forgot, for some reason, to mention the CRM for a whole month, then sales and marketing are in alignment.<\/p>\n<p>If you wouldn\u2019t make that bet (and most of the sales leaders we talk to wouldn\u2019t), then sales and marketing are not in alignment.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Read_More\"><\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/21604003.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net\/hubfs\/21604003\/Corporate%20Marketing\/Freemiums\/White%20Papers\/Aligning%20Sales%20and%20Marketing%20for%20CRM%20Success.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Read More<\/strong><\/a><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><strong>&#8230;and Learn About How to Make Data-Driven Accountability a Reality at Your Organization.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sales and marketing alignment: leaders talk about it. They say it\u2019s what they want. They notice when it\u2019s not happening. But they don\u2019t always offer a clear explanation of what sales and marketing alignment really is. For most of the teams we talk to, this is a major problem. It\u2019s the reason that the goal&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":17161,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1120],"tags":[1081,1306,1180,1101,1309,1259],"class_list":["post-17159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-accountability","tag-marketing-techniques","tag-organizational-growth","tag-sales-and-marketing","tag-sales-challenges","tag-team-development"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Aligning Sales and Marketing for CRM Success: Four Keys for Motivating Your Sales Team to Embrace the System\u2026 and Create Data-Driven Accountability - Sandler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sandler lays out the challenges of aligning sales and marketing while sharing the best, proven ways to successfully overcome each challenge.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/aligning-sales-marketing-crm-success-four-keys-motivating-sales-team-embrace-system-create-data-driven-accountability\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Aligning Sales and Marketing for CRM Success: Four Keys for Motivating Your Sales Team to Embrace the System\u2026 and Create Data-Driven Accountability - Sandler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sandler lays out the challenges of aligning sales and marketing while sharing the best, proven ways to successfully overcome each challenge.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/aligning-sales-marketing-crm-success-four-keys-motivating-sales-team-embrace-system-create-data-driven-accountability\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sandler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-09-22T00:00:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-09-22T14:31:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Aligning-Sales-and-Marketing-for-CRM-Success-Four-Keys.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"676\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kerri Martinek\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kerri Martinek\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/aligning-sales-marketing-crm-success-four-keys-motivating-sales-team-embrace-system-create-data-driven-accountability\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/aligning-sales-marketing-crm-success-four-keys-motivating-sales-team-embrace-system-create-data-driven-accountability\/\",\"name\":\"Aligning Sales and Marketing for CRM Success: Four Keys for Motivating Your Sales Team to Embrace the System\u2026 and Create Data-Driven Accountability - 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