Content Marketing and Sales Alignment: Bridging the Gap [New Research]

Sales people would say “I see a gateway.” And if you put the salesperson and the marketing person together, each might say, “What do you really mean by that?” Classic battle between sales and marketing The tension created between sales and marketing is one of the most well-documented relationships in the B2B environment. But what happens when there is alignment – in particular, between content marketing and sales? Specifically, we wondered: Can better alignment between content marketing and sales serve as the key for a broader, more strategic alignment between sales and marketing – and drive more success? The difference in how often highly aligned and less well aligned content marketing and sales teams collaborate on content-related activities was significant. Content marketing might be the key to sales and marketing understanding, “What did they really mean?” Today’s B2B buying process makes content more critical than ever For deeper insight into the challenges today’s B2B buyers face, consider the following: B2B buyers are self-directed. B2B buyers are teams. Thus, content that provides value to these buyers and avoids overt selling has become one of the most important keys to building customer trust. CMI’s 2018 annual research found that only 20% of B2B marketers say their organizations are extremely committed to the approach of content marketing. That collaboration creates better opportunities to create alignment between content marketing and sales, which may also be the key to a broader sales and marketing alignment within the enterprise. To download the results from the LinkedIn and CMI research – and get started on better alignment between sales and marketing in your organization – click here.

Author: Robert Rose / Source: Content Marketing Institute

Stop me if you’ve heard this one. Two psychiatrists walk by each other in the hallway. Each says, “Good morning.” After they pass, each one thinks, “I wonder what he really meant by that.”

Have a look at the picture. What do you see?

If you are in marketing, you probably see a visual of something you work to optimize every day. It’s the representation of marketing process and efficiency. You work to put aggregate customer segments – audiences – into this funnel. It controls flow. Marketing people would say “I see a filter.”

But if you’re in sales, you likely see something different. You see layers of waypoints where target prospects sit. They are potential customers waiting for gates to open and move them to the next waypoint. You see the potential to choose specific relationships to foster, for trust to be established, and doors to be unlocked. Sales people would say “I see a gateway.”

And if you put the salesperson and the marketing person together, each might say, “What do you really mean by that?”

Classic battle between sales and marketing

The tension created between sales and marketing is one of the most well-documented relationships in the B2B environment. When that tension is healthy, it creates an innovative atmosphere where adaptation is encouraged, and customer value is created. Marketing ensures that sales teams provide consistency and context to the evolution of the customer’s long-term needs. Sales teams push back on content development to ensure that individual customers are treated as partners rather than demographic targets.

When it’s unhealthy, the relationship festers. Fingers point. Blame is held. Marketing claims, “We are generating more leads than sales can handle.” Sales responds, “Marketing’s leads aren’t worth our valuable time.”

Over the last few years, maintaining alignment between sales and marketing teams has become one of the most complex challenges for B2B enterprises. Today, B2B sales professionals face an environment where the relationship between them and their prospective customer has fundamentally changed.

It would be easy to chalk up these changes to the internet and the ease with which buyers can gather information. But it’s not that simple. The digital and social world has changed the buying process too. B2B buyers have new challenges and are under more pressure to make the right decisions in an ever more complex marketplace.

B2B marketers understand this, and B2B sales professionals realize that prospects are usually highly educated by the time they connect with sales. Shouldn’t sales trust the content that marketing produces to do more of the initial relationship building? Why are B2B enterprises reluctant to invest in a strategic approach to content?

Three words: lack of alignment.

But what happens when there is alignment – in particular, between content marketing and sales? That’s the question the CMI research team pondered prior to conducting a new study on the topic with LinkedIn this year. Specifically, we wondered:

Can better alignment between content marketing and sales serve as the key for a broader, more strategic alignment between sales and marketing – and drive more success?

In other words, if sales had a better understanding of content marketing — and the role content plays along each phase of the buyer’s journey — could the alignment between marketing and sales improve with frequent collaboration and shared incentives?

Conversely, if marketers understood that the funnel they see as a filter is also a gate — and that prospects have personal and unique needs that sales must address — could they deliver more valuable content?

CMI’s new research with LinkedIn indicates the answer to those questions is yes.

Highly aligned content marketing and sales teams do things differently than those with low alignment

CMI and LinkedIn surveyed 1,246 marketers around the globe representing a range of industries. Narrowing to the 208 B2B marketers in North America, we found: