Aligned to Achieve: How to Unite Your Sales and Marketing Teams into a Single Force for Growth - Hardcover

Eiler, Tracy; Austin, Andrea

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1119291755 ISBN 13: 9781119291756

Publisher: Wiley, 2016

Synopsis

A smart, practical guide to rocket-powered business growth

Aligned to Achieve puts sales and marketing on the same page, creating a revenue 'dream team' that will drive your organization to new heights. Smart, practical explanations, case studies, and tips guide you toward action over theory, and dozens of examples illustrate the tangible effects of these changes in action at business-to-business companies. Written by sales and marketing executives who have made alignment work, this book is directed toward practitioners and leaders seeking to crack the code of sales and marketing alignment. Contributions by industry thought leaders and B2B executives provide fresh perspective and nuanced direction, while thoughtful, strategic, and well-supported guidance throughout helps you remove the obstacles standing in the way of your organization's financial and strategic goals.

Misalignment between sales and marketing is an age-old problem—frequently lamented, but seldom addressed. As this schism grows amidst the evolving marketplace, its effects on top and bottom line performance are being felt more than ever before. This book shows you how to bring sales and marketing together effectively once and for all, leveraging their strengths to build an unstoppable force for growth.

• Understand the cost of misalignment and the driving forces behind it
• Learn strategies for improving your culture, process, leadership, and technology to initiate and support alignment
• Identify the best places to modify your sales and marketing programs to kickstart collaboration and cooperation between your teams
• Discover how other companies are uniting their sales and marketing teams into a single force for growth
• Walk away with practical advice on how to apply recommendation in the real world

Misalignment is frustrating for everyone in sales, marketing, and leadership. It's also detrimental to your organization's performance—but the problem is not insurmountable. In fact, most of the obstacles it creates are self-inflicted, and entirely within control of leadership. Aligned to Achieve helps you identify and remove those obstacles, and build a culture of sustainable growth.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

The misalignment of your sales and marketing teams does more damage than you think. The disconnect between marketing and sales goes way back in history, but the business impact is getting worse and is now directly affecting top- and bottom-line performance, according to original research. Aligned to Achieve brings both sides to the table to explore why alignment is so critical, and then provides a concrete action plan for achieving alignment in any company.

Customers don't see marketing and sales—they see a brand, which is one reason misalignment can damage growth and profits even when both departments are achieving team goals. Even if both teams use the same data, research shows the majority of teams have no idea what the other is doing and the result is lost revenue—lots of it. For the first time, two pioneering executives in marketing and sales share their firsthand experience aligning business-to-business organizations in a convenient and comprehensive road map.

Written for real-world use, it tackles the tough objections and common pitfalls to avoid along with the hands-on strategies for improving culture, process, leadership, and technology—all to drive alignment. Every topic is examined in straightforward, jargon-free language and includes insights from the authors as well as today's leading minds and studies. Illustrative case examples demonstrate how strategies unfold in actual practice, and every chapter includes a checklist of things to do, "if you do nothing else," to ensure your organization survives until it can fully align and thrive. This single resource gives you the versatility to spearhead the full alignment of any size organization—in fact, take it into the boardroom with you to confidently:

• Create and lead sales and marketing initiatives proven to inspire teams and increase collaboration
• Build alignment into every process at every level, from corporate leadership down
• Optimize your technology to make customer data your company's currency for growth

The journey of today's buyer has changed as their access to information has increased; their path is no longer linear nor does it follow your sales process. If you don't adapt, you will fail. This new paradigm requires breaking down walls, sharing common goals, and effectively communicating in order to be Aligned to Achieve.

From the Back Cover

Crack the Code to Rocketing Business Growth

Aligned to Achieve challenges the status quo of marketing and sales operating in disharmony and prescribes an empirically supported framework to completely align the revenue teams, from lead generation to closing.

Fast-paced, intelligent, and written for practical implementation, this evolutionary guidebook for the busy, forward-moving executive provides a tangible, repeatedly successful approach to unifying sales and marketing on messages, goals, data, and processes. Competition in the business-to-business space has evolved rapidly with advances in technology, and organizations that don't update obsolete growth strategies will fail. The market is crowded, and differentiating a brand to hold a buyer's limited attention requires a consistent, seamless journey through every purchase. This inspiring guide gives you everything you need to make it happen.

"Austin and Eiler offer a wonderfully fresh perspective through their paired marketing and sales voices. They're empowering our industry to move the dialog forward with the insights and concepts they've shared in Aligned to Achieve."
—Phil Fernandez, CEO of Marketo

"Written by two of the brightest sales and marketing leaders in b-to-b, Aligned to Achieve covers proven strategy and pragmatic tactics together in an easy-to-read format. Highly recommended for all revenue generators who want to increase the effectiveness and ROI of their efforts moving forward."
—Matt Heinz, President of Heinz Marketing

"The importance of sales and marketing alignment has been talked about for years but rarely acted upon. Aligned to Achieve provides the foundational 'why' sales and marketing must align, which is supported by fact-based research conducted by the authors. More than just theory and fluff, you will find specific, actionable steps your organization can take now to align across the board. This book is required reading for all sales and marketing leaders and their CEOs."
—Barbara Giamanco, Author of The New Handshake: Sales Meets Social Media

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1119291755
• ISBN 13: 9781119291756
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208