Survey: 62% of B2B Marketing and Sales Teams Aligned on Common Goals

Sales and marketing professionals believe they are becoming more closely aligned, but there are still gaps in the way they communicate and measure success.

The “What Does Sales Need and Want from Marketing?” white paper from Televerde recently focused on how marketing and sales teams are working together to achieve company objectives. The majority of sales reps (62 percent) believe they are aligned with marketing professionals at their organizations.

However, the survey, which included more than 200 B2B sales professionals, revealed there is still more work to do in this area. Thirty-seven percent of respondents claim there is a lack of regular communication between sales and marketing. Thirty-three percent stated that there are differences in the way sales and marketing successes are measured, and 30 percent said their lead qualification processes vary.

“The relationship between sales and marketing drives revenue and maintains customer engagement, so it needs to be a huge priority for businesses,” said Ray Kemper, chief marketing officer at Televerde.

Just 18 percent of sales professionals believe that sales and marketing are “very aligned” at their companies.

Marketers Team Up with Sales to Reach Primary Goals

According to previous research, the highest-performing marketers are those who team up with sales to achieve shared objectives.

The “State of Marketing” report from Salesforce found that 91 percent of high-performing marketers agree that marketing and sales share common goals and strategies. Furthermore, the same percentage believe that sales and marketing are encouraged to collaborate at their companies.

“Winning marketing teams keep close tabs on their sales counterparts’ needs and value two-way communication,” wrote the authors of the report.

Approximately 89 percent of high-performing marketers claim that they understand what their sales counterparts need to succeed.