“Don’t go where I can’t follow!” 
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

Sales and Marketing may be working together and on friendly terms, but are they pointed in the same direction? If not, your company may be experiencing revenue inertia.

Relying too much on technology and data – not on regular, action-oriented, *human* conversations – could mean your company is essentially chasing its tail and leaving money on the table.

I recently spoke with a VP of marketing for a prominent Atlanta-based technology company and with an SVP of sales for another technology leader. Both were doing a great job tapping the marketing data from customer and prospect interactions as inputs to their sales and marketing efforts on a regular basis, and building business conversations around the inputs. But both of these companies are in the marketing automation space, so they have a distinct leg up and insider perspective.

Many of the companies I talk to – even the highly sophisticated consumer marketing machines – are not sure how to leverage the data they receive into effective, targeted sales and marketing initiatives. Sometimes they are not sure what data they need to analyze, much less how to implement it… although that insight could make or break their campaign.

Are your sales and marketing teams using the same messages and sharing/comparing inputs to message response? Are their efforts targeting the same buyer personas? Is there an agreed-upon rhythm and strategy to reach and engage customers, prospects and their influencers? Do sales and marketing have an established cadence to their conversations to drive collaboration and actionable communication? It is always a good idea to have a specific objective for those meetings and someone driving the specific tasks to completion.

What are your company’s best practices for aligning sales and marketing to avoid revenue inertia?