Aligning marketing and sales
At a glance
- Theme
- Demand generation and sales enablement
- Scope
- Multimillion-dollar global enterprise deals
- Role
- Led global marketing and partnered daily with sales
The challenge
In most B2B companies, marketing and sales talk past each other. Marketing counts leads. Sales counts deals. Nobody agrees on what a good lead is, and the handoff is where momentum dies.
I've worked this problem for my whole career, starting with product marketing at Kodak, where I built lead generation programs across four regions and partnered with sales teams on global product launches.
What I did
At Kodak, I started a customer advocacy program that helped secure major new accounts, and our work contributed to a 50% quarter-over-quarter increase in unit sales. I took that lesson to TELUS International: customers who vouch for you are the strongest sales tool you have.
In 2011, TELUS gave me its President's Club award for marketing's direct role in closing multimillion-dollar global deals. It's an honour typically reserved for sales, and it told me that sales valued what marketing had to offer.
As the company grew, I scaled that approach. I sat with global sales every day, building and closing enterprise deals together. My team ran digital, demand generation, events, PR, analyst relations and sales enablement against shared goals. We built co-marketing programs and content with tech partners such as Google Cloud, Salesforce and Five9, and with leading global brands.
By the time I left, the engine ran every day. A strong daily inbound lead funnel was worth millions in pipeline value, and a handful of highly strategic one-to-few account-based marketing (ABM) programs ran in partnership with weekly sales touch points. Together, they engaged more than 80% of our target accounts every month.
The results
in marketing-sourced and marketing-influenced pipeline, annually
President's Club award for marketing's role in closing global deals
quarter-over-quarter unit sales increase at Kodak, which I contributed to
of target accounts engaged every month through ABM and weekly sales touch points
What I'd tell you
Give marketing a number, and give sales a say in how it's built. Sit in the same meetings. Share the same dashboard. When marketing walks into the deal room with proof, sales stops asking where the leads are and starts asking what's next.