Stop Implementing & Start Understanding for Real Smarketing Alignment

What happens when organizations spend the time to understand how technology will change their core business processes?

In our last blog post The Explosion of Sales Tech: A Blessing and a Curse for Executives we discussed how modern Sales Leaders and Sales Development Managers are exposed to an unprecedented amount of sales technology through direct marketing which promises to keep their organizations optimized and efficient.

As a result, Executives and Sales Leaders in some of the best-in-class organizations are being forced to identify gaps in their business operations head-on. In fact, over 74% of successful problem-solving transactions are completed by companies already aware that they have an issue that needed to be solved, according to our March 2017 survey of 87 B2B Decision Makers.

The benefit here is that when key Decision Makers take the time to assess and think through their ideal solutions, they can make sure that the sales tech they’re implementing drives results and streamlines processes instead of holding up collaboration between teams and complicating communication.

Technology Implementation Isn’t Touch-and-Go

According to Kapost, companies are losing 10% or more of revenue per year when they fail to align Sales and Marketing teams around the right technologies and processes. No matter the performance level, 73% of sales teams report that departmental collaboration across all departments is critical to overall sales success.

As a Sales Leader or top-level Executive, you already know the dangers of making impulse decisions when it comes to implementing changes that will affect your strategy, operations, and even the relationships between inside employees. Sales reps alone can spend up to 43 hours each month searching for information; a process that could be streamlined with the right technology-driven changes.

So before you say “yes” to the hottest sales enablement technology, think about your end-game; try to see the “big picture” steps, processes, and tools which will allow your Sales and Marketing teams to adapt and optimize processes and drive up the bottom line. Think about what an ideal relationship between Sales and Marketing teams looks like for your organization. Then, consider how the addition of new technology changes the existing relationship between these two departments.

Leaders: Do More Research Than Just a Google Search

96.6% of the Decision Makers we surveyed reported that they perform a “significant amount” of research on how a suggested technology will change existing processes not only for their department, but for the entire organization. Doing the necessary research is critical to developing long-term solutions, and Sales Leaders and C-level Executives should be able to reiterate how an investment in a solution can integrate between departments, benefit its users, and push the sales process in a successful direction.

Sales and Marketing alignment won’t happen as the result of a one-time, quick-fix solution. It takes a continuous flow of data-backed changes throughout your business’ lifecycle to yield measurable, actionable results.

We’re almost ready to share our eBook Sales and Marketing: Bridging the Gap, which is packed with more data-driven information and findings for enterprise-level Sales Leaders and CEOs who want to focus on aligning their Sales and Marketing departments through mindful changes and drive sales momentum. Sign up for our newsletter to be the first to get your hands on a copy when we roll it out.

Can’t wait for more sales industry insights? Download our eBook Hiring Superior Salespeople and indulge in our series of accompanying blog posts.