Insights: Strategic priorities in modern B2B marketing
02.
Aligning marketing and sales for improved revenue impact
Close collaboration between marketing and sales is crucial for driving revenue. Successful organisations are breaking down silos and creating shared goals and metrics. Kirsty Mitchell from FreeAgent emphasises this point: "We've fostered a close alignment between our marketing and sales functions, to the point where we now share the same revenue targets." This alignment ensures that both teams are working cohesively towards common business objectives.
Building on this idea, Henrik Leerberg, a global marketing leader shares: "We now use revenue goals to bring everyone on the same page. This has helped reduce the division that used to exist between the two teams."
A more nuanced perspective is offered by Emjay Lofts at Crealytics: "While leads are important in terms of ROI, I've also been emphasising the concept of return on influence rather than solely focusing on return on investment." This approach highlights the broader impact of marketing activities beyond direct lead generation.
We've fostered a close alignment between our marketing and sales functions, to the point where we now share the same revenue targets.
Kirsty Mitchell
Head of Practice Marketing and Events, FreeAgent
The importance of shared metrics is highlighted by Joey Lai from Beamery: "To align everything, you need common goals, KPIs, and dashboards. We use tools like HubSpot to bring together metrics across new sales, pipeline renewal, and partner pipeline. This connects not just marketing and sales, but also product development and customer success."
Efficiency in this alignment process is crucial, as Alex Venus from Personio points out: "We're working to make this process faster and more efficient, ensuring only the best opportunities go to sales. This focus on speed and quality helps us optimise our overall sales efforts."
Continuous communication emerges as a key factor in successful alignment. Inessa Marmashova from HYPERVSN emphasises: "Communication with the sales department is vital. It's not enough to have the same metrics and goals; what's crucial is ensuring both departments understand the tools and changes we are implementing, and what actions need to be taken to convert current leads into opportunities."
Communication with the sales department is vital. It's not enough to have the same metrics and goals; what's crucial is ensuring both departments understand the tools and changes we are implementing, and what actions need to be taken to convert current leads into opportunities.
Iness Marmashova
Chief Marketing Officer, HYPERVSN
The alignment of marketing and sales is not just about shared metrics, but a holistic approach involving common goals, efficient processes, and ongoing communication. This synergy between departments is proving to be a powerful driver of revenue growth and overall business success in the B2B landscape.
About 6sense
6sense is on a mission to revolutionise the way B2B organisations create revenue by predicting customers most likely to buy and recommending the best course of action to engage anonymous buying teams. 6sense Revenue AI is the only sales and marketing platform to unlock the ability to create, manage and convert high-quality pipeline to revenue. Customers report 2X increases in average contract value, 4X increases in win rate and 20-40% reduction in time to close deals. Know everything, do anything, with 6sense.