Sales And Marketing Alignment

A prospect tells you: "We’re also looking at [Competitor]." Most reps make one of two mistakes: - They panic and start discounting before the customer even asks. - They attack the competitor, thinking that will win trust. The best reps? They guide the conversation...without badmouthing or getting defensive. Here’s how we teach folks to do it at Sales Assembly: 1) Find the gap. Instead of “We’re better because…” ask: “What made you start looking in the first place? What’s missing today?” This gets them to focus on their pain, not a feature battle. 2) Understand their criteria. Instead of “Why are you considering them?” ask: “What’s most important to you in a solution?” You want them defining success in your playing field. 3) Focus on fit, not features. Instead of “We’re better at X,” ask: “What’s been standing out to you in each option so far?” If they highlight something critical you do better, that’s your opening. 4) Help them think ahead. Instead of “They don’t do [X] like we do,” say: “A lot of teams in your space have prioritized [X] because it impacts [Y]. How are you thinking about that?” This frames the conversation around outcomes - not a feature war. 5) Guide the decision process. Instead of “Who’s your front-runner?” ask: “What’s your process for narrowing down options?” If they don’t have a clear decision path, they’re likely to stall. 6) Make the decision feel easy. Instead of “How can we win this deal?” ask: “If you had to make a decision today, what would give you confidence?” This surfaces final concerns...so you can remove them. The goal isn’t to beat competitors. It’s to help buyers feel confident that choosing you is the right move.

I’ve been in sales for 17 years, and spent $3M+ as a buyer. If there’s one piece of advice I’d give to salespeople it is; STOP blaming your product or price. Your Closed-Lost reasons aren’t what they seem. Your buyers aren’t telling you the full truth—most deals are lost because of the buying experience you create. Before you're handed your 2025 quota, make sure to fix these 9 silent deal-killers: 1. Being Slow No, “Sorry I missed your email”, or “Had a busy week” are not an excuse buyers can take. Nothing you say fixes the signal you send by being slow. You’ve lost points and they WILL affect their decision. 2. Being Disengaged I get it, I really do. You're trying to ‘play hard to get’, like dating. Newsflash— buyers want to feel they matter. It might work on a few, but most run away. 3. Being Over Engaged “I work here, you don’t”. As a buyer, I don’t have time for weekly syncs, long emails, ebooks, etc. I have my day job, and it’s not buying stuff. Sell accordingly. 4. Asking Questions For You You were taught qualification is for you, that discovery is for you. It’s NOT. I need to know if I’m not a good fit, or why I need to buy your stuff, as much as you do. Make it about me first, and you’ll get yours. 5. Following Up For You At least 90% of follow ups should serve the current buying ‘job-to-be-done’ for each stakeholder. Identifying the problem? Send a pain summary. Building problem consensus? Multithread to make sure no key buyer is missed. 6. Thinking Demos Are The Goal Buyers push you to demo. So you go on a feature dump rampage. But what they’re really saying is: “Had enough with this interrogation, let’s just see the demo, maybe It’ll help me get it”. Demos aren’t the goal, discovering value is. 7. Building Expertise In Your World (Only) If you can’t add value to my world (i.e. my problems, how to navigate my buying process effectively), then your value is a commodity. Just send me a recorded demo, or let me self-serve. Obsess over learning my world, before yours. 8. Email, Links, Attachments Hell We run many complex projects. Each in Asana/Notion. It’s all organized as so much can slip through the cracks. Why is a (more complex) buying project any different? Help me build consensus; organize the buying process in one space. 9. Ignoring Stakeholder Diversity A C-Level demo is NOT the same as a Champion, or Tech Buyer demo. You force them to do the heavy lifting. If you can’t speak to each person’s priorities, seniority, and preferences you slow consensus and risk losing traction. —— The way you sell IS your product. Buying experience is not marketing’s job. It’s not a nice-to-have. It’s the difference between you winning. And getting ghosted/single-threaded. Or losing to a competitor/no-decision. In 2025, make it easy to buy. P.S. We built Aligned to help create a sales process that stops ghosting & indecision. A 100% FREE Deal Room used by 30,000 sellers. You can try it here: https://lnkd.in/dwX_Zizk

Here is how to build a B2B marketing function that influences the whole buyer journey: 1. GTM STRATEGY. Develop a clear GTM strategy and align leadership, sales, and marketing, including: - Goals and objectives based on revenue metrics and sales pipeline velocity - Focus market segments and clusters - ICP - Marketing message - Narrative (with what strategic challenges you want your product been associated with) 2. CUSTOMER RESEARCH. Define key accounts in prioritized segments and interview your Champions about their buyer journey. Here are 5 groups of questions: a. Buying triggers. What leads them to start looking for solutions like yours? b. Research process. How do they evaluate vendors? What information are they looking for? c. Decision-making process. What influences their decision? Who is involved in the purchase process? What questions do they ask? d. Product value and impact on jobs-to-be-done & KPIs. Look at before/after and highlight tangible improvements of KPIs your Champions care about. f. Educational processs. What platforms & communities do they use to learn? Who do they follow? 3. BUYER JOURNEY. You don't sell to companies, you sell to specific people. They have different KPIs, reasons to buy and decision-making process. Analyze all visible digital touchpoints with key customers. Interview Account Owners about deal history. Combine insights with the customer research and visualize the buyer journey for the most important buying committee roles: - Champions - Decision-makers - Influencers - Blockers - Power Users 4. CORE MARKETING PROGRAMS AND MOTIONS. You don't need 50 different tactics. Map out different marketing and sales activities across the buying process that help to: - Create awareness and attract attention - Generate demand for your product - Capture buying triggers and high-intent signals to start engaging with the buying committee - Enable buyers to sell your product internally - Accelerate time to value with your product - Upsell and cross-sell to other units 5. ASSIGN ROLES. Assign the roles to run these programs and define the necessary skillset. Ensure cross-functional collaboration. --- This diagram might be perceived as a linear buyer journey which is obviously not true. I wanted to describe how to align B2B marketing function with different buyer journey stages. The B2B buyer journey is not linear. Your buyers might skip steps or repeat some steps. The goal is to ensure that marketing, sales, CS and RevOps work together to influence the entire buying process, create pipeline and drive revenue.

Here is how to align marketing and sales processes with the buyer journey. 1. GTM ALIGNMENT Get a strategic alignment between marketing, sales, CSM, product and stakeholders: - Goals and objectives - Priority market segments  - ICP, including: a) Account (dis)qualification and prioritization criteria  b) Buying committee structure: economical buyers, power users, decision-makers c) Their jobs-to-be-done d) Typical challenges your product helps with Analyze top segment clients (fastest deals and highest LTV) and define the patterns. 2. CUSTOMER RESEARCH Compliment your analysis with customer research to understand how your best customers are buying: a) Buying triggers, what leads them to start looking for products like yours? b) Research process - Where and how do they search?  - What information are they looking for?  - What questions do they have when evaluating and comparing different products? c) Decision-making process - What influences their decision?  - Who is involved in the product approval process? d) Value they got from the product, what were the challenges they faced before using your product and what are the tangible improvements. e) Channels of influence and awareness. - Where do they go to get industry or professional information?  - Who do they follow? f) Change management - What beliefs did they need to change in their organizations? - How did they present a potential product value to the team and stakeholders? 3. VISUALIZE THE BUYER JOURNEY Based on the collected insights, visualize the typical buying process of the buying committee members. - What steps do they take and on what channels? - What internal discussions do they have? - When do power users and decision-makers join the buying process? 4. KEY MARKETING AND SALES PROGRAMS Map out different marketing and sales activities across the buying process and on the different channels. You don't need 50 tactics. Define the key activities to create awareness, attract attention, generate demand, and activate target accounts. 5. ASSIGN ROLES Map your marketing and sales roles to the planned activities and develop cross-functional team that focuses on pipeline and revenue genetation. --- One important point: This diagram might be perceived as a linear buyer journey. We all know this is not true. The B2B buyer journey is not linear. Your buyers might not take all the steps, or might return to previous steps multiple times. Takeaways:  1. Understand why and how your customers are buying 2. Define the key activities to create awareness, attract attention, generate demand, and activate target accounts 3. Develop a cross-function team to maintain full-funnel marketing and sales activities to influence the buyer journey We are going to cover more at the Full-Funnel Summit next week (16 masterclasses by 19 B2B leaders). Get a FREE ticket for yourself and your team here: https://lnkd.in/e9tNM78R

Every sales leader I talk to at the moment is struggling with some version of the same issue. The symptoms are different, but the underlying cause is the same. - Sales cycles elongating - Deal slippage - Prospects not showing up to meetings - An uptick in ghosting - Poor forecast accuracy - A drop in deal volumes - A drop in conversion rates What's actually happening out there in Buyer land? I've been delivering win-loss reviews for B2B companies around the world since 2011 and I'm seeing buyer behaviours I've never observed before... Let me break down some of them quickly for you and share some guidance on how to use these lessons to your advantage: Trend #1: Risk has jumped up the decision tree in order of importance, to the very top of the list for many clients, even more so when it's a new vendor. Action: Go deeper on risk in your discovery conversations, recognise that risk is both organisational and personal...find ways to better manage, mitigate and share risk with your clients...Be the low risk option. Trend #2: Value for Money, Responsiveness and Cost are consistently selected as the most important decision criteria by many clients. Action: Responsiveness should be an easy one to get right, but many sellers are stretched too thin right now...do less, but do it better. Trend #3: Change in Strategic Direction is the most frequently cited reason for customers coming to market for a new solution at the moment. Action: Try to reverse engineer this reason, to understanding what caused this change in direction and what it actually means for the business. These are your keys to the kingdom, when building a rock solid business case. Trend #4: Feedback from Peers and Colleagues has emerged as the most trusted information source for almost all respondents. Action: Case studies and customer references are losing their luster...find ways to tap into the trust which prospective clients have in their own peer network, as a way to unlock deeper connections and build trust. Trend #5: Customers are demanding more detail in the proposal documents, tender responses and business cases which they are receiving. Action: Put in the work, avoid the cookie-cutter responses, find your win themes and weave them in, share the detail they need to make an informed decision. I haven't got a crystal ball, so I can't tell you if/when the pendulum will swing back the other way, from a buyer behaviour perspective. What I can tell you with a high degree of certainty is that prospective customers have raised the bar, in terms of their expectations from their vendor partners. It's our job now to to elevate the preparation, patience and professionalism of B2B sellers everywhere, to meet these changing needs and maintain our relevance to the customers we serve.

Sales & Marketing misalignment has been one of the biggest issues for GTM teams for more than a decade. They’ve tried to solve it with: -Changing marketing goals from MQLs to SQLs (didn’t work) -Putting a Chief Revenue Officer in charge of Marketing (didn’t work)  -Having a weekly pipeline meeting for Sales & Marketing (didn’t work) -Buying an ABM platform (didn’t work) B2B companies always try to fix GTM at tactical execution (e.g. let’s hire a new growth marketer to do SEO for us) or tech & tools (e.g. let’s buy an ABM platform and change from MQLs to MQAs). They do this because it’s easy but it doesn’t solve the real problem. It’s superficial & visible. It’s easy to report back to the board in a powerpoint slide about a new tool or new tactic or new hire. But the real root cause of these issues is so much more fundamental. It’s deeply rooted & invisible. The real root cause of these issues is the operating model & data model that companies consciously or subconsciously adopt that drives the mindset of executives, investors, and GTM teams, and influences every decision they make. Lead -> MQL/MQA -> SAL -> SQL -> SQO -> Closed Won And here are the core issues: 1. Operates in an assembly line of silo’d departments instead of an allbound integrated revenue team. 2. Most companies use a model that was created between 2012 and 2017, despite how much has changed in the world in the past 6 years. 3. Marketing is optimizing for MQLs/MQAs or a poor definition of “pipeline” that doesn’t align to close won revenue. The data is clear in every Salesforce instance that core Marketing KPIs don’t align to closed won revenue, sales velocity, and marketing ROI. 4. SDRs optimize for SQLs or meetings, not closed won revenue. 5. All of the technology, tools, and tactical “best practices” are built around getting leads, MQLs/MQAs, and SQLs, further entrenching companies getting stuck in the model. 6. GTM teams are stuck in the incremental. How do we improve our outbound connect rates by 1%? How do we reduce our cost per lead by $3? There are no breakthroughs in growth with incremental improvements. Optimizing a broken model is not the solution, it’s changing the model. 7. No standardized data model so every company reinvents the wheel in RevOps w/o clear, performance-based definitions. Everybody on the GTM team is looking at different metrics & decisions are based on experiences and opinion instead of science & data. When you are putting together your 2024 plan, use these ideas as a guide. Clearly identify the core issue(s) that are holding you back. Create a solution that actually solves the root cause, instead of treating the symptoms. #b2b #gtm #marketing #sales

While hiring for my team, Over the years, here’s what I’ve learned about building a team that doesn’t just work for you but builds with you: 1️⃣ Hire for attitude, train for skills – A positive, curious, problem-solving mindset beats a resume full of credentials any day. 2️⃣ Clarity beats charisma – Be very clear about the company’s vision, metrics, and growth path. A team aligned with a crystal-clear goal moves faster. 3️⃣ Empower, don’t micromanage – Give people the freedom to make decisions, fail, learn, and grow. Leaders emerge only when given space. 4️⃣ Celebrate wins, own failures – As founders, we take the blame when things go wrong but give the credit to the team when things go right. It builds trust. 5️⃣ Culture isn’t posters on the wall – It’s how people treat each other when no one’s watching. Build the right culture early; it compounds like interest. The right team will make you unstoppable. The wrong one will make you miserable. As founders, our real job is not building the product… it’s building the people who build the product. #Leadership #TeamBuilding #Founders #Startups #Entrepreneurship #CompanyCulture #LeadershipLessons

6 EMAIL MARKETING PROBLEMS (and how to fix them) LOW OPEN RATES This can stem from uninteresting subject lines, poor deliverability, or not using preview text. Craft subject lines that spark curiosity and use personalization. Ensure strong sender reputation, avoid spam words, and test sending times. Use preview text to complement and summarize. Make subscribers eager to open your email, not just feel obligated. HIGH UNSUBSCRIBE RATES High unsubscribe rates may signal irrelevant content or frequency issues. Get feedback via surveys or emails. Segment list for tailored content and frequency. Improve content with value and variety. Deliver what subscribers want to keep them engaged. LOW CTR Low click-through rates often result from dull call-to-actions (CTAs) and irrelevant content. Use action-oriented, appealing, and well-placed CTAs. Align content with audience interests; use visuals. A/B test CTA styles, placements, and wording. When you have CTAs that stand out and relevant content, it'll help improve your email engagement. EMAIL GOING TO SPAM Emails landing in spam folders are often due to not following email deliverability best practices. Use double opt-in if necessary. Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Regularly clean your email list. Monitor reputation with Google Postmaster. Follow these easy best practices to improve email deliverability. SLOW EMAIL LIST GROWTH This can stem from poor sign-up strategies, low-value offers, and low traffic. Offer compelling lead magnets like eBooks or discounts. Write persuasive copy and simplify the sign-up. Promote sign-ups via social media and website. A/B test form designs, placements, and copy. A streamlined and seamless sign-up process will help boost your list growth. HIGH BOUNCE RATES High bounce rates typically indicate issues with email addresses or list hygiene. Clean list regularly; verify addresses before sending. Monitor bounce reports; address hard and soft bounces. Use double opt-in; keep subscription info updated. A healthy, well-maintained list minimizes bounce rates.

The worst scenario for a revenue team: - Marketers focus on sending a lot of leads; - Sales say "your leads are not qualified!"; - Marketers reply "you could close them!" In other words: they are not cooperating. The worst scenario is when the two functions in charge of generating revenue can't collaborate well. Instead, they split the whole process into 2 parts and create 2 separate KPIs. I've seen this misalignment in many situations: - C-Levels that debate endlessly on who's wrong - Internal teams putting the fault on the agency - Operational teams that don't collaborate Obviously it's bad for the revenue. But in fact, what needs to be done is clear. Marketers and sales should collaborate with 2 tools: 1. Alignment instruments 2. Feedback loop 1. Alignment instruments There are tons of tools to align the 2 teams (aside from company culture). But it needs to start from giving them the same target (a revenue KPI). How could they collaborate if they don't aim in the same direction? After that, they can: - Install a common CRM health routine - Weekly or bi-weekly alignment meetings - Joints tactics (such as ABM for example) 2. Feedback loop Marketers need sales' insights from the ground. Sales need elaborated research from marketers. That's why they need to install a constant feedback loop to share insights about their common interest: the customer. Here are some examples: - Marketers run messaging test, inform sales - Sales writes 'pain point' report for marketers - 2 teams create a shared monthly report for CEO If your revenue team is in the situation stated in the beginning of this post; it's important and urgent to transition to a healthier cooperative model. *** Follow me Pierre Herubel for daily marketing tips.

You took the VP marketing job because you want to build something. But the min you step in, you’re handed numbers that don’t match the reality. There’s a pipeline target with no historical model. Every motion is expected to drive leads, even if that’s not its job. And somehow you’re accountable for all of it. This is where good marketers get stuck. Not because the strategy is wrong. Because the scoreboard is. If we want to make it past year one, this is what has to change Start by separating the motions. → Brand The goal: get known and stay remembered What I track: branded search, direct traffic, social engagement, word of mouth What I tell the team: this is long-term leverage. It builds trust before intent ever shows up. → Demand The goal: capture intent and turn it into pipeline What I track: opp creation, win rates, CAC, conversion rates, velocity What I tell the team: this is your performance engine. It needs budget and sales alignment, not vanity metrics. → Expand The goal: grow accounts and keep customers What I track: NRR, service consumption, expansion opps, advocacy What I tell the team: this is where growth compounds. Ignore it and churn will quietly kill your model. I bring this view into every leadership meeting. Not to protect marketing, but to protect the business from misalignment. Because when every motion is measured the same way, you don’t have a strategy. You have a guessing game. You don’t fix that with more ads. You fix it by showing what good looks like, motion by motion. That’s the job.