From Silos to Success: Transforming B2B Businesses with a RevOps Roadmap

Once upon a time, most companies' sales and marketing departments were like parallel tracks on separate railways. The traditional sales and marketing teams operated side by side without intersecting, bound for the same destination. The tracks never converged, missing opportunities for streamlining operations or sharing resources. Each train ran solely on its engine – or core focus –  relying on brute force to move forward. Leads were the coal that fueled the marketing engine's fire, with sales teams relentlessly focused on conversion.  

The B2B buyer's journey has profoundly changed with the accessibility of digital technologies. Buyers now have access to vast amounts of information. This information shapes their buying preferences and expectations. It affects their behaviors long before they engage with a business and long after they decide to purchase a product. In addition, customers expect brands to meet them where they are in their customer journey, with the information they want, at the time they want it, and in the channel they prefer.

When sales and marketing teams run on e parallel tracks, it may cause customers to encounter mixed messages and inconsistent branding across your business channels. They may feel frustrated if marketing and sales teams lack coordination in the buying process, causing delays or miscommunication. These misalignments can undermine the prospect's confidence in your company and your ability to meet their needs.

This shift in the customer journey has led to the need for greater alignment and collaboration between marketing and sales. Both teams must work together to understand and address the needs of modern buyers. . This breaking-down of silos creates a unified revenue-focused roadmap (RevOps) that encompasses the entire customer lifecycle.

Today's sales and marketing teams need to be a smoothly functioning i a high-speed train, where the engine is enhanced by a sophisticated communication system—marketing serves as the signals, guiding sales efforts with precision and efficiency. An integrated train not only moves forward faster but also navigates bends and obstacles with ease, ensuring a smoother journey towards its destination of success.

Buyers expect a cohesive, seamless buyer experience — which is an impossible feat if your sales and marketing teams aren't aligned. When your marketing communications are tied to sales strategies, you can engage prospects and existing customers throughout the extended relationship, leading to more sales, happier customers, and greater customer lifetime value. 

Understanding the Disconnect

Tradition aside, the disconnect between sales and marketing is often blamed on differences in priorities, communication gaps, and conflicting objectives. But recent HubSpot reports found that both teams tend to agree on the causes of misalignment. This is the first step towards overcoming it. 

Challenges of Misalignment

HubSpot’s 2024 State of Marketing & Trends Report found that the top challenges marketers see with sales and marketing alignment are:

• Lack of effective communication between teams (32%)
• Sales and marketing teams using different tools (29%)
• Lack of alignment of goals and strategies (29%)
• Lack of input from sales on marketing content (29%)
• Lack of visibility into sales activities (28%)

HubSpot’s 2023 Sales Trend Report said that sales leaders think the barriers to sales and marketing alignment are: 

• Lack of effective communication between teams (38%)
• Lack of input from sales on marketing content (27%)
• Lack of alignment on goals/strategies (30%)
• Sales and marketing teams use different tools (26%)
• Difficulty sharing data between sales and marketing teams (26%)

The good news is that your teams most likely agree on the challenges to overcome. Do they also agree on the reasons why they should overcome these challenges? 

Reasons to Overcome Misalignment

HubSpot’s Marketing & Trends Report said that when marketing and sales aren’t aligned:

• 40% of marketing leaders said their marketing budgets are wasted
• 39% said they lost sales
• 34% said they lost leads
• 38% said their customers had a poor experience 

In comparison, HubSpot’s 2023 Sales Trend report found that:

• 52% of sales leaders said that misalignment cost them revenue
• 36% said it prevents both teams from succeeding
• 33% said it wastes marketing budget

It's clear that smart marketing and sales leaders understand that the traditional way of doing business in silos isn’t a best practice any longer. There is a need for a more integrated approach that leverages the strengths of both functions and matches today's customer journey. Let's look at how an  integrated RevOps roadmap delivers results.

The Power of Alignment

Sales and marketing alignment brings tangible benefits that directly impact your bottom line and the success of your business through streamlined processes, improved outcomes, and data-driven strategic planning. 

Improved Lead Quality

When sales and marketing teams work together, they can jointly define and refine customer personas. This alignment ensures that the marketing team has the data they need to generate high-quality leads that meet customer needs and preferences. The sales team receives leads are that ready to buy. In other words, when working together, each team delivers better on its immediate and most important function.

Faster Sales Cycles

By aligning strategies and working together, your sales and marketing teams can the streamline sales process. Marketing can give sales valuable insights into prospect behavior and preferences. This lets sales reps tailor their approach and engage prospects better. This alignment shortens the sales cycle by reducing friction and accelerating the path from lead to conversion.

Increased Revenue

Perhaps the most significant benefit of sales and marketing alignment is the positive impact on revenue generation. When aligned, your teams can drive exponentially more qualified leads. They can close deals faster and maximize each customer interaction's value. By working together towards shared goals and optimizing each other's strengths, sales and marketing alignment leads to increased revenue and business growth.

Enhanced Customer Experience

A true RevOps strategy also folds the customer experience team into the roadmap. A cohesive sales and marketing strategy ensures that prospects and customers receive consistent and relevant messaging, including product updates, industry education, upselling and cross-selling opportunities, and more. They also experience seamless interactions across all touchpoints. This alignment creates a more positive customer experience. It also fosters stronger relationships and increases customer satisfaction. Even after the sale, aligned messaging deepens customer engagement, improves retention, and increases lifetime value. Happy customers are also more likely to be loyal advocates for the brand. They'll boost revenue growth through referrals and repeat business.

Data-Driven Decision-Making

When your sales and marketing teams align their efforts, they can leverage shared data and insights to make better-informed decisions. By collaborating on data analysis and reporting, your teams can identify critical market trends. They can also work together to optimize campaigns and allocate resources more effectively. This data-driven approach enables ongoing improvement and enhancement. It ensures that your sales and marketing efforts always fit with overall business goals.

Sales and marketing alignment is vital for business success in a competitive marketplace. By working together towards common goals, your sales and marketing teams can achieve greater efficiency, effectiveness, and revenue growth.

Identifying Sales-centric Marketing Tactics

One of the simplest ways to align sales and marketing is to collaborate on sales-centric marketing tactics. Sales-centric tactics prioritize the needs and goals of the sales team to drive revenue and show return on investment (ROI). Instead of focusing on top-of-funnel marketing content, sales-centric marketing focuses on messaging that drives action through the whole funnel.

These tactics are crucial for demonstrating ROI because they directly contribute to revenue generation and align closely with the objectives of the sales function. Here are some examples of the sales-centric tactics we recommend to our B2B clients. 

ICPs and Customer Personas

Ideal customer profiles (ICP) and corresponding buyer personas provide valuable insights into your target customers' needs, preferences, and behaviors. These insights enable your sales and marketing teams to tailor their outreach and engagement strategies by understanding the solutions and benefits they seek. You'll also have a better view of a target customer's decision-making process. Timely, personalized, and relevant messages to an individual customer or account will position your team as trusted advisors. They’ll show that your company understands the unique needs of your prospects.

Targeted Content Creation

Sales-centric content is designed to address target customers' specific needs, pain points, and interests at each stage of the buyer's journey. Both teams should collaborate to build targeted content. The goal is to provide insights, education, and information that shows your product or service is the solution to a target customer's needs.

Examples of sales-centric marketing content include case studies and demos. Other examples include comparison guides, ROI calculators, and whitepapers. Creating content that resonates with prospects will help move them through the sales funnel faster and with more success. 

Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

ABM targets and engages high-value accounts or key decision-makers within target organizations. It involves personalized sales outreach and tailored marketing campaigns that resonate with specific accounts or ICPs. To create these campaigns, sales and marketing teams conduct thorough research on each target. The goal is to understand their business objectives, industry trends, competitive landscape, and pain points. 

To measure success, sales and marketing teams collaborate to establish key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics for tracking ABM initiatives. This includes monitoring account engagement, pipeline velocity, conversion rates, and revenue attribution. Both teams regularly review performance data to identify areas for improvement and strategies for maximum impact.

Personalized Outreach Strategies

The success of your sales team depends largely on their ability to inspire and nurture trust from prospects, often online. Personalization is important to effective sales outreach. It enables your sales reps to tailor their messages and approach to prospects' needs and preferences. This approach often builds trust.

Personalized outreach strategies may include customized email campaigns, targeted social media outreach, virtual demonstrations, or one-to-one sales conversations. These strategies engage prospects with messaging that meets them exactly where they are in the buying process.

Sales-centric tactics are essential for demonstrating ROI. They contribute to revenue generation and align closely with the goals of the sales function. When both teams focus on activities that support the customer journey from acquisition through retention, you can more accurately measure the impact of your efforts.

Implementing ROI-Driven Marketing

Siloed marketers often measure success through "vanity metrics," data points that don't contribute to business outcomes or ROI. A common example of a vanity metric is the number of leads generated without considering their quality. Others include social media followers, email opens, or advertising impressions.

Aligning marketing efforts with ROI goals and objectives is vital for maximizing sales and marketing impact. Then, your teams can collaborate on marketing campaigns that support all business objectives, including sales, retention, and customer lifetime value.

ROI-driven marketing uses multi-touch attribution models. These models analyze how marketing channels and touchpoints contribute to sales. You should always tie your sales and pipeline metrics to marketing campaigns. It’s essential to see their impact on your business outcomes. In addition, you should track overall marketing performance metrics such as conversion rates, customer acquisition cost (CAC), and customer lifetime value (CLV).

Communication is Critical

Both HubSpot surveys reported that the most difficult challenge in aligning sales and marketing is the lack of communication between the two teams. This must be a priority for every business leader intent on aligning these two critical functions.

Communication is absolutely crucial in sales and marketing alignment. It serves as the foundation upon which collaboration, synergy, and shared goals are built. Effective communication ensures that both teams clearly understand each other's objectives, strategies, and challenges. This shared understanding fosters empathy and cooperation, leading to more effective collaboration.

Focusing on open communication also allows for a continuous feedback loop between teams. Sales can give timely insight into client needs, preferences, and pain points. This insight informs marketing and content creation. Similarly, marketing can share data and analytics with sales. This helps sales understand how well their efforts work and make data-driven choices.

Open and transparent communication builds trust and strengthens relationships between your sales and marketing teams. When both sides feel heard, valued, and respected, they’re more likely to collaborate effectively and work towards shared goals.

Tools for Better Alignment

Aligning the sales and marketing functions for a RevOps roadmap may seem like a daunting task for business leaders who’ve always relied on siloed teams. However, there are tools and technologies available to enhance alignment, increase communication touchpoints, and streamline workflows between your teams.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems

CRM systems let sales and marketing teams track customer interactions, manage leads and opportunities, and record customer behavior. A shared CRM platform lets your teams access up-to-date information and collaborate more effectively.

Marketing Automation Platforms

Marketing automation platforms enable your team to automate repetitive tasks like email marketing, lead nurturing, and campaign management. They also assist in personalizing messaging to enhance lead and customer engagement. These platforms often connect with CRM systems. This allows marketing and sales teams to work together smoothly to create and nurture leads.

Sales Enablement Tools

Sales enablement tools provide digital resources and content to engage with prospects. These tools often include marketing content libraries and sales collateral management. Having both sales and marketing materials available in one place ensures continuity. Sales enablement tools may also provide sales training resources, which help your sales teams deliver the right message at the right time. 

HubSpot is a software solution that offers CRM, marketing automation, and sales enablement services in one platform. This integration allows you to streamline your marketing and sales efforts while aligning your teams.

The SyncShow Advantage: A Certified Onboarding Agency

As one of the first HubSpot Onboarding Accredited agencies, SyncShow ranks among the top 2% of HubSpot agencies globally. Our experts are highly effective in streamlining and optimizing our clients' transition and use of HubSpot. We'll guide you through the entire audit, set-up, and training process. We'll help you make the most of this powerful tool and set every team member (sales and marketing) on the path toward success. For more information, schedule a discovery call today.