Start 2025 Strong With Better Sales And Marketing Alignment

As the new year begins, aligning your sales and marketing teams is just as important as ever. But why is this alignment so hard, since both departments share a common goal of driving revenue? The likely problem is that too often, each operates in silos that lead to misunderstandings, misaligned tactics, and missed opportunities.

Sales and marketing collaboration isn’t just a nice-to-have in 2025—it’s a business necessity.  

Why Alignment Matters

When sales and marketing collaborate effectively, good things happen. Research shows that companies with tightly aligned sales and marketing realize 36% higher customer retention rates and 38% higher sales-win rates. 

On the flip side, misalignment can cause real challenges. For example, imagine your marketing team generates 500 leads from a new campaign, but the sales team claims those leads aren’t high-quality and ignores them. Marketing feels frustrated their work is being undervalued, while sales struggles to hit their targets with limited pipeline support, blaming marketing.

Contrast this with an aligned team: Marketing runs the same campaign but collaborates with sales upfront to define a clear ideal customer profile. The campaign yields 200 highly qualified leads that meet sales’ criteria, and sales follows up promptly, converting a significant percentage into customers. 

5 Alignment Best Practices

1. Establish Shared Goals

Begin the year by setting clear, measurable objectives that both teams can rally around. For instance, marketing might focus on delivering 1,000 MQLs (read more on marketing-qualified leads here), while sales commits to converting 50% of those leads into opportunities. Use these shared goals as a foundation for accountability throughout the year.

#ProTip: Setting mutually agreed-upon, incremental timelines can break big annual goals into manageable chunks, such as marketing commits to delivering 20 qualified leads per week, while sales agrees to follow up on each within 24 hours. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

2. Define the Ideal Customer

Misalignment often stems from differing perceptions of exactly who the target prospect is. Collaboratively defining an ideal customer profile (by industry, title, business size, etc.) from the start ensures marketing attracts the right leads and sales knows how to nurture them properly.

3. Adopt Collaborative Tools

Technology can help bridge gaps between departments. For instance, CRM systems and marketing automation platforms enable real-time data sharing and transparency. Imagine a scenario where marketing can see which content prospects engage with most, and sales can use that information to personalize their outreach.

4. Establish Regular Communications

Regular check-ins between sales and marketing are essential. For example, if sales reports that certain leads aren’t progressing in the pipeline, marketing can adjust their targeting or create new assets to better support movement. Weekly or biweekly meetings help ensure alignment stays on track by breaking down what’s working, what’s not, and where improvements are needed.

5. Create Unified Content

There should be multiple types of content to reflect the priorities of both sales and marketing over the course of the buyer’s journey. For example, marketing might create an engaging eBook to attract leads, while sales develops a follow-up presentation to address common objections (read about the best content types for each stage of the buy cycle here).

Gain Traction In The Year Ahead

Aligning sales and marketing isn’t just about improving processes—it’s about creating a unified approach to winning and retaining customers. As the new year unfolds, take the opportunity to break down silos, foster collaboration, and build a culture of shared success between teams. 

Remember, alignment isn’t a one-time effort; it’s an ongoing commitment that pays dividends in better results and stronger teams.

Give yourself a sales and marketing alignment glow-up in 2025 to start driving greater revenue.

If you need help getting alignment or want more strategic sales and marketing advice, we can help. Let’s talk today.