• Cookie Policy (UK)

Certified Salesforce Partner UK - Salesforce Consultants - Salesforce Solutions

Consultants in Salesforce Marketing Cloud CDP Marketing Cloud Account Engagement - Top Certified & Experienced - 5/5 CSAT

Call +44 (0)330 808 3317
Salesforce consultant - marketing consultants, Salesforce partner UK REVIEWS
  • SALESFORCE CONSULTING
    • Pardot Consulting
      • Pardot Services to support your ongoing success
    • Marketing Cloud Consulting
    • CDP Implementation Consultants
    • Sales Cloud Consulting
      • Salesforce Managed Services
    • Salesforce Service Cloud Consulting
    • Salesforce integrators for ISV partners
      • Campaign Monitor for Salesforce
      • Emma for Salesforce
      • The Best Email Marketing Packages for Small Business
    • Salesforce Community Cloud Implementation
  • CLIENT SUCCESS
    • Clients Who Trust Us
    • Testimonials
    • Healthcare Case Study – Patient Communication
    • Salesforce nonprofit case study – LoveYourBrain’s marketing automation platform migration
    • Marketing Cloud Case Study for Church Community
    • Salesforce Marketing Cloud Case Study: Luxury Membership Club
  • ABOUT
    • Our Leadership
    • Our Team
      • Jobs
    • Our 1% Pledge
    • Press
  • BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL
  • CONTACT
    • Contact us by email
    • Call us at +44 (0)330 808 3317
    • Ask us a question
    • Get a Salesforce Demo
    • Marketing Cloud Prep Workshop
  • RESOURCES
    • What is Salesforce
      • What lies ahead: Salesforce Roadmap in 4 min videos
    • Marketing Cloud
      • Salesforce Marketing Cloud Case Study – B2B2C – Great read for Cat lovers
      • Salesforce Marketing Cloud FAQ
    • Salesforce CDP
    • Pardot
      • Pardot Naming Convention Generator
      • Guinness World Records Pardot Case Study
    • Sales Cloud
      • Hospitality Case Study
      • Grow Your Business Successfully with Salesforce CPQ
      • Campaign Monitor for Salesforce
    • Service Cloud
    • Salesforce Communities
    • Strategic Marketing
    • Other Digital Marketing Platforms and Tools
      • SEcockpit for SEO
      • Trendemon for Journey Optimising
      • Hootsuite for Social Mgt
      • WordPress
  • SALESFORCE BLOG
    • Insights for Marketing
    • For Sales & RevOps
    • Small Business Tips
    • Tips & Tools for Service
    • For Salesforce Leadership
    • Our Salesforce Webinars & Events

4 Easy Steps to Align Sales with Marketing to Boost Revenue

April 8, 2019 By ASTRID VAN DORST 1 Comment

This article on the 4 Easy Steps to Align Sales – Marketing addresses an important issue. If you see a tug of war between the Sales vs Marketing teams in your organisation, know that you are not alone!

In fact, it’s all too common: as much as  53% of sales professionals are not pleased with marketing’s support, a survey by LeanData showed. And may I add Marketing’s perspective: nothing is more wasteful than Sales not accepting the lead you worked hard for generating!

The problem: lack of alignment.

There’s however enough reason to ensure an ‘ perfect as possible’ alignment between Sales and Marketing: “B2B businesses that align their revenue engine grow 12 to 15x faster than their peers and are 34% more profitable” according to SiriusDecisions.

4 easy steps to align sales - marketing
Image Credit – Salesforce

4 Easy Steps to Align Sales – Marketing

STEP 1: Agree on what the Ideal Prospect looks like.

Sales Account Execs have their own views on what their best customers look like. However, these views are to be complemented with actual market research facts regarding buying persona, attributes, purchasing motives, buying behaviour and the likes.

In addition, what’s an ideal sale must be defined as well. Is that: Quick win or Customer for life?

An easily converted prospect is great for quick-win sales. Helps with making this quarter’s sales quota. But what an organisation is really after is a target market that delivers predictable sales. That defines loyal clients as ideal clients. 10 predictable repeat sales are better than 1-off hit, right?! You’re looking to build long- term relationships.

As an organisation and its service market evolves, this ideal customer profile will have to be revisited from time to time.

A marketing automation platform like Pardot has features like ‘prospect grading’ to specify which prospect characteristics are ideal vs. not on target. Prospects are scored based on factors like industry, locale, company size, job title and more as grading parameters.

Setting up prospect grading is an easy, helpful step to infuse sales insights into marketing initiatives, with tremendous results.

pardot marketing automation planning

STEP 2: Define (exactly) what a sales-ready lead is. Finding a prospect with the right demographics (i.e. prospect grade) is one thing. Having that person ready to part with her cash, is another.

A marketing automation platform like Pardot enables you to score a lead’s every action taken in your realm: visit key website pages, fill out a form, click CTA buttons in landing pages.

To what extend is the prospect progressed in his/her purchasing journey to be ready to talk to a Sales rep. That person might have downloaded an industry white paper, participated in a free webinar, and visited the pricing page on your website.

This ‘lead scoring’ system adds up the points. Now, your sales and marketing teams must decide when that lead is ready to be handed over to a sales rep for conversion. At this point, the lead will be called an SQL — sales qualified lead.

In sum: lead scoring another easy method for efficient alignment between Sales and Marketing.

Digital marketing automation testing

STEP 3: Link Your Marketing Automation System to Your CRM System.

In the case of Pardot and Marketing Cloud, there are many ways & degrees to which you could build linkages and integration with the Salesforce CRM.

Integration can be a simple prospect sync, to triggered email sends upon customer field state changes in your CRM, to task for your sales team when a prospect reaches a certain number of points. Configuring Salesforce Pardot Connected Campaigns is another way to integrate. Different type of integration require more or less configuration.

What’s best for you sales and marketing alignment depends on the nature and mission of your organisation.

build marketing automation

STEP 4: Track the Sales and Marketing Metrics that Matter.

The proof IS the pudding. What do I mean? Being able to prove that your marketing works is the sweet spot.

What is so powerful about marketing automation tools? It is that you can actually track your marketing campaign results along the various stages in your pipeline. And most importantly, that you can begin to link the actual revenue you have realised with each marketing campaign that you have running.

Having a Marketing ROI in hand is, of course, very powerful. But also, consistently, filling the pipeline in the earlier stages is very powerful. It’s important for sales planning, but also for things like cashflow management or production planning.

Conclusion

A marketing automation platform like Pardot empowers an organisation to make 4 Easy Steps to Align Sales – Marketing, And that’s worth pursuing.

Successful sales and marketing alignment is not achieved overnight. Optimising is the name of the game.

Learn more if it’s for you

If you are interested in a Pardot* / Salesforce sales and marketing alignment chat or demo, feel free to contact us via the button below.

Or, first read more about our other insights in Salesforce CRM integration with Pardot. In our Seven Reasons Why Pardot (particularly for mid-sized B2B). Sales and Marketing alignment is one of them.

 (*Update: Pardot is renamed to Marketing Cloud Account Engagement as of April 5, 2022.)

Last Updated on June 2, 2022

Filed Under: IT, Marketing, Pardot Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, Sales Tagged With: CRM, Salesforce Pardot, Salesforce Sales Cloud

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Want better
revenue marketing?


Expert UK salesforce consultants
Start today.
Get a FREE consultation with our Salesforce experts.



Follow us

LATEST ARTICLES – Tips & Insights from Salesforce experts

  • Salesforce Pardot for Lead Management: “A Leader” says Gartner
  • What is Marketing Cloud Account Engagement Optimizer
  • How Salesforce Service Cloud and Pardot can refine your marketing strategy
  • 15 Tips for cold email that converts
  • Millennials Marketing – Email is best way to reach ‘m 📣
  • Salesforce Genie 🧞 – what you need to know
  • Email personalisation is the new conversion rate optimisation
  • Salesforce winter 23 release notes best free features
  • What is Salesforce Integration? – An introduction
  • What are the Salesforce Characters? – Meet Genie
  • Use our email delivery best practices – for email hitting inbox
  • New Salesforce trailhead ranking for rangers
  • Using Pardot for events – Howto & Tips
  • Salesforce release notes – schedule Winter 23
  • Contact form spam protection in Pardot – 10+ ways to prevent form spam
  • 5 Tips to get the most out of Dreamforce 2022
  • Pardot Name change to Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
  • Grow Your Business Successfully with Salesforce CPQ
  • Salesforce Marketing Cloud August Release
  • New Pardot Landing Page Builder – Coming Up Next!

TOPICS

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Specialists Consultants UK - CloudAnalysts

Salesforce Consulting Partner
CloudAnalysts Proudly Took the 1 Percent Pledge
CloudAnalysts Proudly Took the 1 Percent Pledge

CloudAnalysts
Ridge Salesforce UK Consulting Partner
0330 808 3317

Experience in serving clients
in the UK and Ireland,
EMEA, US and Canada.

Registered office
1 Rosemont Road
London NW3 6NG
UK

WHAT CLIENTS SAY


star_rate star_rate star_rate star_rate star_rate

"Exceptionally well executed project"
"CloudAnalysts did an excellent job designing and implementing our Salesforce Marketing Cloud solution within 2-3 weeks to swiftly migrate from Oracle Service Cloud ensuring business-continuity." -- CIO


star_rate star_rate star_rate star_rate star_rate

From scoping to delivery, Cloud Analysts were professional, knowledgeable, flexible and accommodating." -- IT Projects Delivery Manager


star_rate star_rate star_rate star_rate star_rate

"Exceptionally talented marketeers"
"Helped me reframe my thinking about how we should be approaching sales and marketing." -- Head of Operations and Franchise Development


Copyright © 2023 CloudAnalysts, owned and operated by Aryta Ltd. | Privacy & Cookie Policy

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}