Inaccurate & insufficient data to be blamed for the sales & marketing disconnect

BANGALORE, INDIA: A survey conducted by InsideView has shed some lights on the reasons behind the discord between sales and marketing teams.

“Sales and marketing misalignment costs companies real money. It is an age-old problem but the time is now to fix it once and for all,” said Tracy Eiler, CMO of InsideView. “There are so many things companies can do to improve – this report offers practical suggestions across people issues, process, and technology. And we have enlightening comparisons between India and U.S. companies that can help us learn from each other.”

The root of the disconnect

According to the survey, 50% say that sales and marketing is being measured by different metrics and is the biggest challenge to alignment between the two functions.

‘Communication’ emerged as the second most important reason impacting sales and marketing alignment with almost 40% votes.

About 36% respondents voted for lack of accuracy and completeness of data on target accounts, making it the third most important factor impacting alignment between Sales and Marketing.

The fact that both sales and marketing professionals recognize the importance of data fitness augurs well for any business.

Over 55% of the marketing professionals reported having never collaborated with sales on lead scoring. The response wasn’t much better from sales – 47% responded with a ‘no’ when asked the same question. Further, almost a third of the sales respondents agreed that marketing doesn’t measure anything important.

What makes the 'leaders' different from the ‘laggards’?

This research also reveals an interesting divide between ‘leaders’ and ‘laggards’.

Leaders were measured as companies who said they exceeded revenue goals last year. This constituted 18% of respondents. These companies report higher levels of alignment between sales and marketing across almost all parameters – processes, priorities, success metrics, and relationship.

Among the most key behaviors is frequency of meetings and the content discussed. Leaders among both sales and marketing reported meeting their counterparts more frequently to discuss pipeline.

Nearly 90% of them meet weekly. They collaborate on reviewing and defining processes including identifying ideal customer profiles, lead scoring, win-loss analysis, and lead handover. They have well defined knowledge transfer processes ensuring better visibility into key aspects impacting business success.

Further, leaders prioritize lead quality over quantity and place importance on completeness and accuracy of data on target accounts. A remarkably high percentage (80%) of leaders, report having closed a deal using social media.