Revenue Funnel Drives Marketing and Sales Alignment

By Maria Geokezas, Vice President of Client Services at Heinz Marketing
As marketing organizations grapple with revenue-accountability and as organizations develop their growth and investment plans, alignment between marketing and sales partners becomes vital.  Numerous studies have shown the positive impact of marketing and sales alignment — from higher customer retention rates to higher sales win rates, to closing bigger deals.  Aberdeen has found companies with strong marketing and sales alignment achieve a 20% annual growth rate.
Alas, only 8% of companies attest to having strong alignment between their marketing and sales organizations — proving marketing and sales alignment is easier said than done.
Despite genuine efforts to align functions, tightly communicate and coordinate processes, sales and marketing teams often find themselves at loggerheads, sometimes as rivals but mostly as convenient scapegoats for missed targets.  Why is this?
Broken Marketing and Sales Funnel
Marketing and sales alignment has to go beyond functional divisions, communications and