Misalignment between sales and marketing functions is having an adverse effect on both job and organisation performance within firms.
This is according to the latest research report, The State of Sales & Marketing Alignment in 2021 from customer engagement company, Freshworks. This is according to the latest research report, The State of Sales & Marketing Alignment in 2021 from customer engagement company, Freshworks.
Key stats include:
• There is a problematic ‘alignment gap’ in UK sales and marketing functions: 100% agree that sales and marketing should be aligned, yet only 42% think their organisations are aligned. What is causing this gap and how do we close it?
• This is now causing efficiency problems for businesses: a quarter (25%) of salespeople who said they weren’t aligned with marketing saw revenue drops of more than 20% – compared to only a 6% drop for those who were highly aligned
• 64% of UK respondents say they still don’t have a 360 degree view of the buyer’s journey (compared with 56% in Europe)
• The use of disparate and siloed technology was seen as the greatest obstacle to achieving optimal alignment, cited by 59% of UK respondents
A quarter (25%) of salespeople who said they weren’t “highly aligned” with marketing on goals and objectives saw revenue drops of more than 20%. Those respondents who said their functions were “highly aligned” only saw a 6% drop in revenue.
The use of disparate, siloed technologies was seen as the greatest obstacle to achieving optimal sales-marketing alignment, cited by 59% of UK respondents. Information about prospects and customers sitting fragmented across multiple sales and marketing systems, as well as the lack of coherent strategies to engage customers is causing businesses to lose out on revenue.
“Despite years of companies investing heavily in trying to build 360º views of their customers, our research suggests that many aren’t quite there yet, with misalignment between sales and marketing clearly affecting the top line of businesses,” said Simon Johnson, UK & I General Manager, Freshworks. Clunky software has a lot to answer for, as despite its promises, it’s contributing to siloed departments and poor CRM discipline. “At a time when customer service really makes or breaks a business, being able to offer that complete view of the customer can help an organisation to develop customers for life.”
Lack of visibility across upper funnel activities, such as website visits, chatbot interactions and engagement with marketing content were cited as concerns by 46% of sales respondents, when asked their view on marketing activities within their organisation. Meanwhile, 69% of marketing personnel felt they needed more visibility of lower funnel activities from the sales teams.
The use of CRM systems also shed light on the poor data-keeping practices that many respondents’ businesses have. Almost two-thirds (64%) of respondents said there was a need for greater use of the CRM system, tied with better data hygiene in the system. CRM systems are important tools for ensuring sales and marketing alignment as they provide two teams with a single source of truth on a customer, rather than offering disparate data points.
“Effectively using a CRM system ensures sales and marketing teams can access the most relevant, up to date information about a customer, all from one place, helping to alleviate some of those issues shared around top and bottom funnel activities.
In order to provide sales and marketing teams with the insight they need to make better, more informed decisions about prospects and buyers, there needs to be greater alignment on strategy, process, and goals, as well as a shared platform that gives an up to date, 360⁰ view of the customer profile,” concluded Johnson.
About the research
Freshworks carried out the sales & marketing survey between January and March 2021 with a total of 1,253 business leaders (C-suite, vice-president, director, manager) from across America, Europe the Middle East, Africa and Asia. 160 of these respondents were in the UK. The survey was carried out by Dynata on behalf of Freshworks.