Growing Sales through Sales & Marketing Alignment

As some of you may know, along with Lerentech (a blend of IT and marketing firm), we also have LerenGroup, offering Sales Management as a Service^TM, sales coaching, and sales training. While my background prior to both was a mix of IT, website development, marketing, and even sales; my partner Roy has extensive experience and expertise in sales management and business development as well. I’ve long held that sales and marketing should not operate in separate silos – the two often overlap and should complement each other. But I never felt this was a common occurence and I believe traditionally ad agencies have always focused on advertising and maybe marketing, but never dealt much with sales.

So when I saw this whitepaper in my spam folder, I was intrigued and I’m glad I didn’t miss it. It’s about integrated marketing and aligning sales and marketing from a company that offers a marketing automation software. There are some interesting stats and solid advice for businesses.

According to a 2011 Aberdeen Group study, highly aligned organizations achieved an average of 32% year-over-year revenue growth – while their less aligned competitors saw a 7% decrease in revenue. Yet according to another study from Forrester, just 8% of companies say they have tight alignment between sales and marketing.

Websites are a good example of a marketing piece often used by sales people so as I was reading it, I thought I would share the whitepaper and draw attention to an important part of it:

75% of the respondents said that B2B marketers were too heavy-handed with the sales messaging in their content. And a 2010 study of B2B buyers found that 95% of buyers chose a solution provider that “provided them with ample content to help navigate through each stage of the buying process.”

Found in the section on integrated messaging strategy, it speaks to the importance of marketing collateral to support sales and in thinking about websites, it provides good advice for content and copywriting. Think about your own site (it is often the first thing your potential customers see other than maybe a business card or logo): does your site sound to salesy? Does it help inform your customers and maybe even help them navigate the buying / decision-making process? Perhaps it could benefit from not only a new, modern design but good copywriting.

Some people think of Lerentech as an IT company – and we certainly do a lot with and LOVE tech – but it’s also important for us to look at our clients’ marketing and we approach website design and development from a marketing perspective. Our goal is to provide you with a return on your investment through more leads and new customers, and even an enhanced brand and position. If you’d like to talk about marketing and your website, feel free to give me a call or contact us online… and if you’re interested in LerenGroup and how we might improve your sales program, visit our other site here..