The path to your number this quarter isn’t going to come from sales, it will come from a single source of truth. We know there is nothing efficient about siloed acts of sales, but in this new era of efficient growth, how do leaders build structure while managing constant change?
As the era of growth at all costs is coming to a close, smart leaders are prioritizing alignment to keep up with the demands of efficient growth. They’re beginning to understand that integrated growth is a must, and with marketing’s help, sales has an immense opportunity to build efficiency, fill pipeline gaps, and even develop better engagement in sales conversations. While everyone else is talking about the latest tech and AI, the sales leaders that will reach the top are the ones that are focusing on fundamentals and alignment.
Alignment is more than a meeting
We asked Dan Gottlieb, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner for Sales Leaders, what he was observing from marketing and sales leaders successfully creating, capturing, and converting demand. He said that, while simple, the leaders that are most in control are those that are planning together and doing the fundamentals of their practice areas really well.
In an environment constantly bombarded with change, an integrated cadence and shared data is the only foolproof solution for delivering results. Dan shared a story about a sales development leader, explaining that “he knew that he was doing a good job when the EMEA field marketing lead came to a key early quarter planning call with ideas on how to fill pipe coverage gaps.” Without a shared planning approach, sellers and marketers alike become executors of grab-bag tactics.
Buy tech for the culture you’re using it for
Sales leaders are recognizing not only the necessity to collaborate cross-functionally, but the enormous gains from leveraging other departments’ knowledge to evolve sales conversations. Few other sources have insights so specific to your own personas, products, and use cases.
While there are some obvious culture gains from aligning cross-functional teams and setting shared growth goals, it’s critical your tech is supporting alignment, and not creating silos in sources of truth. Sales tech can be used in more creative ways that will open a lot of doors for sales and marketing alike, but we rarely talk about tech in the realm of culture.
In reality, better insight benefits culture. When cross-functional teams are aligned on a single source of truth, leaders are able to enable an easier, more consistent path to their numbers with the entire revenue team.
Technology consolidation vs AI
While AI continues to be a transformative force in B2B sales and marketing, the trend of technology consolidation is setting the groundwork for how businesses will leverage technology in the future. It is not merely a response to the challenges of today but a reflection of vendors’ pressure to grow and buyers’ seeking less complexity.
But as leaders become wrapped up in the battle between switching vendors, consolidation, and new AI tools, they lose sight of the most critical factor: what their end users really need and want. If you’re trying to build alignment between sales and marketing and shopping for a tech tool that can help, it’s wise to start by asking those teams what features and capabilities they actually need and use. Understanding those needs allows you to map to different design criteria, allowing for clearer purchase decisions and higher adoption.
Efficient Growth starts with alignment
In this new era of efficient growth, alignment is more critical than ever to keep up with changing buyer behavior while still delivering results. With a unified view of customer interactions across different touchpoints and departments, companies can tailor their communications more precisely and improve engagement in sales conversations. But in order for this to be scalable, sales needs to rely on marketing insights and vice versa.
Technology tools can be an accelerator for driving alignment, but only if a single source of truth is shared by the whole revenue team. Remember who your end users really are and the culture you’re buying it for before getting wrapped up in the hype around consolidation and AI. Sales managers that use the process of conversation targeting as a collaborative approach build better buyer engagement in their sales conversations, but also establish a structure that fosters creativity, personalized messaging, and a culture that can withstand constant change.
Listen in with guest Dan Gottlieb on Growth Driver
Before the pivot into efficient growth, and even before AI, the field of B2B sales has been seriously transformed in the last few years. B2B buying behavior has shifted, away from meeting with sellers and toward anonymity. There has been an unprecedented rise of different GTM motions; account-based, product-led growth, customer-led growth, partner ecosystems… And to top it all off, we’re experiencing an absolute explosion in technology, data, and now generative AI.
Despite all of this upheaval and innovation in B2B, sales and marketing teams still have to deliver growth, and efficiently. The era of siloed heroics is coming to a close, and smart leaders are leveraging alignment to keep up with the demands of efficient growth.
Join guest Dan Gottlieb for a deep-dive conversation with co-host John Common about the vital trends reshaping B2B and how sales and marketing leaders can foster a culture of resilience amid constant change.
About Dan
Dan Gottlieb is a Senior Director Analyst at Garter for Sales Leaders. He covers a range of topics, from generative AI for B2B sales to RevOps data automations, to conversation and revenue intelligence. He describes the current state of the market in a single word: mayhem. Prior to Gartner, Dan was a Senior Analyst leading research in the sales practice at TOPO.