Aligning Sales and Marketing With the Same Story

Salespeople can be great storytellers

Utilizing the people on your sales team as great storytellers will be instrumental to the success of your marketing and sales alignment. The kinds of personalities that go into sales positions are. Hardwired to be natural storytellers. If you think about it, the sales team is already telling a story to convert their leads into sales. Once the marketing can harness the story of your product and put it in the hands of your sales team, you will see a dramatic improvement. They already know the product inside out, so all you need to do is provide the narrative. The success of your alignment strategy will depend on each department speaking the same language and sharing the same goals.

Marketers can help to guide the narrative

Once the sales team has the story, there’s no reason for the marketing department to step away from the process. Like any game of telephone, it’s really easy for the story to get diluted once the marketing team is no longer involved. It’s important for marketers to understand that sales are focused on closing deals, which makes the marketing team the keeper of the story. Marketers have a responsibility to see that the story stays on brand from start to finish, and the best way to do that is to help the sales team guide the narrative each step of the way.

Everyone should help to keep the story straight

While each department is bringing specific things to the table, there’s one thing that everyone can contribute: sticking to the story. As soon as the messaging gets mixed up or confused, a distance begins to develop between the marketing and sales teams. If marketing is involved in the process longer, it can help the sales feel more comfortable with the story and tell it in a much more compelling way.