B2B Marketing: The first step a systems integrator took to achieve Sales-Marketing alignment
Originally published on B2B LeadBlog
“One of the most important things you can do for your sales team is to generate qualified sales,” Kelly Harman, Vice President, Marketing, Carousel
Industries, said at B2B Summit 2012.
Her presentation, “Make Marketing Indispensable: Strategies for turning the sales team into your biggest fans,” featured steps marketers can take to achieve a productive, cooperative relationship with Sales. To achieve Sales-Marketing alignment beneficial to both teams, Harman and her team of marketers developed a four-step process to provide the tools Sales needed to capture leads and improve transparency between Marketing, Sales and the entire operation at Carousel.
In this video excerpt from Harman’s presentation, learn how her team began their efforts by walking in Sales’ shoes.
“We talked earlier about looking at your website through the eyes of the customer, which is critical, I would ask you to do the same thing and look at the sales tools that you’re creating for the sales people. Look at them through the eyes of the sales person,” Harman explained.
The marketing team at Carousel attended Sales’ meetings, met with Sales afterwards, and discovered they were only using 5% of the tools Marketing put together for lead generation.
In this excerpt, you will learn about the Sales Advisory Group, which was created by Marketing to receive feedback from Sales on industry trends, customer pains and new campaign ideas.
In the full video replay, Harman discussed how after getting a clearer picture of what Sales needed, she and her team provided more useful tools, made it easier for sales reps to find valuable information by creating the “Carousel Insider,” and finally, how the team made the entire department transparent.
Related Resources:
Lead Gen Summit 2013 (September 30 – October 3, 2013 in San Francisco)
Fostering Sales-Marketing Alignment: A 5-Step Lead Management Process
Categories: Lead Generation B2B LeadBlog
