--- title: 7 Prescriptions for Aligning B2B Marketing, Selling and Buying description: Why B2B-focused organisations absolutely have to align marketing, selling and the buying process - and how to do it image: https://www.inflexion-point.com/hs-fs/file-57508131-png/images/sales_2-0.png --- This is a search field with an autosuggest feature attached. - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. # 7 Prescriptions for Aligning B2B Marketing, Selling and Buying ![Bob Apollo](https://app.hubspot.com/settings/avatar/78fa41976d534cacbb0e22e151bc6816) Post by [Bob Apollo](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/author/bob-apollo) June 4, 2013 ![7 Prescriptions for Aligning B2B Marketing, Selling and Buying](https://www.inflexion-point.com/hs-fs/file-57508131-png/images/sales_2-0.png) The recent Sales 2.0 Conference in London seemed to me to be a great success. The auditorium was full for the opening address, the speakers were insightful and the audience was engaged and lively. I was able to make a modest contribution to the days proceedings by sharing some of the lessons I’ve learned over the past 12 months about aligning the B2B marketing, selling and buying processes. ![Sales 2 0](https://www.inflexion-point.com/hs-fs/file-57508131-png/images/sales_2-0.png?width=113&height=111&name=sales_2-0.png)There’s no doubt that there’s still a great deal of room for improvement, as evidenced by 4 disturbing statistics: 80-90% of all the materials generated by marketing for sales consumption remain largely or completely unused Sales people are still wasting dozens of hours per month (re)creating materials to support their sales activities Only 1 in 8 of all meetings with sales people are rated as in any way “valuable” by prospects There’s a growing trend for complex B2B buying cycles to end in a decision to do nothing You’ve got to wonder, haven’t you, whether these issues could perhaps be related? You can [download my full presentation here](http://www.slideshare.net/Bobapollo/sales-20-london-2013-presentation), but in this article I'd like to share the 7 prescriptions I offered to the audience to help them break away from this cycle of wasted effort and under-performance. ## 1: Sales and Marketing MUST get together and agree what an ideal prospect looks like… …but, as I pointed out, traditional demographic segmentation simply isn’t enough: you’ve got to identify the structural, behavioural and situational criteria that define your most valuable opportunities, market to them, and qualify against them. You can [download a useful guide to get you started here](https://b2b.inflexion-point.com/ideal-customer-and-key-stakeholder-profiles). ## 2: Sales and Marketing MUST identify with their prospect’s key stakeholders… …and it’s not just their role in the company or in the decision-making process: you’ve got to identify and understand their likely issues, motivations and concerns, their personal priorities, and the external information sources that influence their thinking. ## 3: Sales and Marketing MUST work out what their prospect’s Actionable Issues are… …it’s obvious that a product- or service-out approach to marketing won’t get you very far, but even if you’ve seen the light and switched to a issue- or problem-in approach, you got to select the issues you choose to target intelligently, and have compelling answers to the following questions: “why change?”, “why now?” and “why us?” ## 4: Your Sales and Marketing Pipeline MUST be defined by the key stages in the Buyer’s Journey… …and more than that, the milestones that separate each stage must be based upon clearly observable evidence of a step forward in your prospect’s buying decision process, include a measurement of velocity, and every “opportunity” must be regularly requalified. ## 5: Your Marketing Messages and Sales Conversations MUST be aligned to the stage your prospect has reached… …but beyond that, if you can’t clearly define what stage of the buying journey a piece of content is intended to influence, and what outcome you are seeking to achieve, then you shouldn’t be producing that piece of content at all. Don’t waste your time. ## 6: Marketing MUST help Sales to have intelligent conversations… …in fact, if you’re supporting a complex B2B buying process that involves dialogue that stretches over an extended period of time, every piece of content ought to be accompanied by a series of talking points that can give direction to the subsequent sales conversation. ## 7: Sales and Marketing MUST share great answers to Tough-to-Answer questions… …every complex sales throws up a series of tough-to-answer questions, whether they be objections or requests for clarification. You simply can’t afford to have your sales people re-invent the wheel every time. Pool and share the best answers! So there you have it 7 simple prescriptions. Simple to agree with, harder to implement, unless you have two things on your side: a clear, mutually agreed, buyer-aligned sales-and-marketing plan, and a buyer-aligned sales and marketing playbook. I’d be happy to share what we’ve learned about accomplishing both if you’d like to [drop me a line](mailto:bob@inflexion-point.com?subject=B2B%20Plans%20and%20Playbooks). p.s.: here's the link to that presentation again: [http://www.slideshare.net/Bobapollo/sales-20-london-2013-presentation](http://www.slideshare.net/Bobapollo/sales-20-london-2013-presentation) ###### Tags: [B2B Marketing, ](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/b2b-marketing) [Sales Enablement, ](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/sales-enablement) [Sales + Marketing Alignment, ](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/sales-marketing-alignment) [Complex Sales](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/complex-sales) ![Bob Apollo](https://app.hubspot.com/settings/avatar/78fa41976d534cacbb0e22e151bc6816) Post by [Bob Apollo](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/author/bob-apollo) June 4, 2013 Bob Apollo is a Fellow of the Institute of Sales Professionals, a regular contributor to the International Journal of Sales Transformation and Top Sales World Magazine, and the driving force behind Inflexion-Point Strategy Partners, the leading proponents of outcome-centric selling. Following a successful corporate career spanning start-ups, scale-ups and market leaders, Bob now works as a strategic advisor, mentor, trainer and coach to ambitious B2B sales organisations - teaching them how to differentiate themselves through their provably superior approach to achieving their customer's desired outcomes. [Follow me on my website](https://www.inflexion-point.com) [Follow me on LinkedIn ](https://uk.linkedin.com/in/bobapollo) [Follow me on Twitter ](https://twitter.com/bobapollo) ### Comments ###### Related Articles ### [The 7 Essential Foundations of Sales and Marketing Alignment](https://www.inflexion-point.com/Blog/bid/71012/The-7-Essential-Foundations-of-Sales-and-Marketing-Alignment) Posted by **[Bob Apollo](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/author/bob-apollo),** **Aug 30, 2011** The latest research by Aberdeen Group, SiriusDecisions, CSO Insights and others suggests that organisations with ... ### [If Alignment is such a good thing, why is it so hard to achieve?](https://www.inflexion-point.com/Blog/bid/91437/If-Alignment-is-such-a-good-thing-why-is-it-so-hard-to-achieve) Posted by **[Bob Apollo](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/author/bob-apollo),** **Nov 13, 2012** It would be hard to find anyone prepared to argue against the benefits of sales and marketing alignment. It’s a proven fact ... ### [B2B Marketing: Time to Bring the Digital + Physical Worlds Together?](https://www.inflexion-point.com/Blog/bid/68084/B2B-Marketing-Time-to-Bring-the-Digital-Physical-Worlds-Together) Posted by **[Bob Apollo](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/author/bob-apollo),** **Jul 28, 2011** If you were to listen to the siren songs of the social media charlatans, you might think that conventional B2B marketing ... 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