Understanding the impact of marketing transformation on sales and marketing alignment

It is the digital era and marketing is transforming. Many factors are driving the need for a new approach to sales and marketing alignment in business-to-business (B2B) organisations. Buyers no longer need to rely for information on the salesperson from a company providing the product or solution. They can research and find most of the information online, through social media and peer groups. Various analysts have estimated that about 70 per cent of the purchase cycle is accomplished without sales interaction with vendors. Hence, by the time buyers are ready to engage with a salesperson, preferences have already been established in their minds. The sales cycle is now the buying cycle. In this new world, marketing can play an important role in educating and guiding customers through the buyer journey. For this to happen, B2B organisations need to review the traditional key performance indicators for marketing. This also has implications for sales and marketing alignment. This paper explores the impact of changes on the buy side and sell side that the author has seen, especially over the last five years, and suggests how companies can ride and benefit from this wave via a new integrated sales and marketing approach.