Sales and Marketing Alignment: A Sales Leader's Three Signs It's Working
When marketing and sales argue, everyone assumes it's a personality clash. In my experience it's almost always a process problem. On the latest Sales & Marketing Playbook: Unleashed, Craig Andrews and I dug into how you actually know whether your sales and marketing are aligned. Craig gave the marketing view. Here's mine, from the sales side.
No system, no alignment
The first thing I'll say — and Craig agreed — is that alignment requires a system. Without a defined sales process, you can't tell whether sales and marketing are working, whether something's broken, or what to fix. When there's no system, salespeople go build their own materials because they don't trust what marketing handed them, marketing runs campaigns that don't reflect what's happening in the field, and the whole thing devolves into random activity and blame. A system replaces "he said, she said" with something you can actually measure.
Closing the wrong deal is a loss, not a win
Here's something that doesn't come up enough in sales meetings: was that customer even good for the business? I've worked with teams doing a bang-up job closing deals while losing money on nearly every one — a flat fee that took twice the hours, or a big-name client whose expectations they couldn't profitably meet. A close that drops your margin from $200 an hour to $40 an hour isn't a win. It's a problem you now have to service for years.
That's why the ideal client profile matters as much to sales as it does to marketing. When the deal closes, the client has to actually get what they thought they were buying — that's how you earn the reviews, referrals, and introductions that make the next sale easier. Closing is just the beginning of turning a customer into an evangelist.
The Revenue Cookbook: put the plan in writing
Craig and I built the Revenue Cookbook because too many owners say "I want to do five million" without knowing what that requires. How many clients need to close? What's your mix of small, mid-size, and large clients? What's your closing percentage? How many first meetings turn into real proposals, and how many conversations does it take to get those meetings?
We break it down so you can plug in your own numbers — and we sort clients into rabbits (your smallest by revenue), deer (your mid-size, bread-and-butter), and elephants (your largest). It's revenue to you, not brand name: if Disney buys one tiny thing, Disney is a rabbit. And if 75% of your revenue comes from one client, your business is at severe risk, no matter how big the logo. Getting that mix right is a core part of how we run ongoing sales coaching.
Sell to WIIFM, not to your feature list
The number one radio station your prospect is tuned to is WIIFM — What's In It For Me. If they can see the value of working with you, they become a client. If they can't, they pass, or they grind you down to the cheapest price because they see you as a commodity. This is the discipline we drill in sales training: stop leading with features, start leading with the problem you solve and the value the client perceives.
My three signs you're aligned
- There's a plan in writing that sales and marketing both signed off on. Sounds simple. Most organizations still don't do it.
- Your closing percentage is going up. That tells you the right kinds of leads are coming in and your team is closing them well.
- The clients you're landing are profitable. You're not just churning revenue — the business is making money, which means the message is landing and people see the value.
Craig's marketing-side signs were a great complement to these, and we got into the full framework — system, data, client mix, and the promise your brand makes — on the episode. Watch or listen: https://www.smplaybookunleashed.com
If your sales and marketing aren't rowing in the same direction, that's fixable. Get in touch and let's look at your process.
