Owning the same goal
Encourage Sales & Marketing to play together instead of against each other đ§ââïžđ§ââïž
Last time we discussed how both Marketing & Sales should be following the same KPI: pipeline created.
Now that weâve discussed about KPIs, itâs important that we discuss about Goals.
KPIs are the metrics that matters, the one you follow. Goals are what you want to achieve. Targets that are often tied to your compensation (âCreate 5M⏠of pipeline in Q4â will get you 100% of your variable pay).
Most often youâll see Marketing and Sales own different goals.
Both teams will work on their own roadmap. They will not work together unless it can help their own goal.
Here are examples of what that looks like:
Marketing organize a webinar to create Marketing Generated Pipeline.
They want Sales reps to invite their prospects.
Whatâs the point for Sales Reps? Itâs better for them to follow-up with their leads personally in order to create Sales Generated Pipeline.
Sales sometimes owns Outbound Prospecting.
They need help to create better ICP and to craft better sequences.
Whatâs the point for Marketing? They should spend their time working on their own campaigns.
Maybe it doesnât work like that in your organization but it does in most. People are driven by their goals. Which is why we create goals in the first place.
It gets worse if Marketing is getting paid on these goals. And I believe Marketing should have a variable pay (not as high as Sales but still decent).
So why do we create goals that encourage both teams to work on their own stuff?
Working as ONE team
I strongly believe that both teams should own the SAME goal.
Which means that Marketing AND Sales focus on opening pipeline together.
Sales definitely need to be compensated on Closed Won but they should also care about creating pipeline.
This will ensure that both teams work together towards the same objective.
Yes one day your counterpart is going to screw up. And it will be your duty to help and work overnight to ensure everyoneâs success.
You have to trust that theyâll do the same thing when itâs your turn. Itâs what teams do (have each otherâs backs).
So unless of playing against one another. Start playing in the same team. And this means that you need to align your goals.
Whose fault it is?
When we started doing outbound, I realized that our sales team never sent a follow-up email after the meeting. And it sucked because opportunities werenât closing.
So we started pointing fingers and it took us a couple months to understand why reps werenât following up.
I can assure you that this pinger pointing was a mistake and it eroded trust between the two teams.
It took us way too long to understand the reason and thatâs only because we were so focused on âwhoâs wrongâ rather than trying to understand.
Sounds familiar?
If youâve got shared goals, donât ask âwhose fault it is?â. The only thing you can achieve by pointing finger is to harm trust.
Both teams are responsible for opening up pipeline so if they donât meet their common goals, they are both responsible.
This is the right way to have meaningful conversations. Ask why and listen.
If you want to take credit when things go well. You should avoid blaming people when things go south.
The most successful leaders are able to see their role in the blame game, admit mistakes and focus on fixing rather than blaming.
There are a couple books on the subject that are really useful:
Conclusion
If you truly want to have the perfect alignment, itâs important that you start acting like a team instead of two independent entities.
Aligning on the same goal is a great first step. Have you ever experience with having shared goals? What are your thoughts?
Iâve been thinking about interviewing experts around Sales & Marketing alignment. Who would you love to hear from?