Marketing and IT often have different objectives. Typically the Marketing group cares about getting more leads, more customers and growing revenue. The IT group is measured on whether they’ve implemented the right technologies, kept costs down and served the business. To be successful, there must be a high level commitment to the vision of what project will accomplish. This includes transcending the metrics the teams are measured on. In order to do this properly, roles and areas of responsibility for all members of the project team must be clearly defined.

Defining Relationship Roles and Responsibilities

The RACI model helps organizations define roles & responsibilities during a change process. The ‘A” stands for who is ultimately accountable for the success of the task, at a high level. The Marketing department should be responsible for defining the problem. They should also determine the vision for the business process. The IT department should be responsible for providing guidance on technologies. Implementation and ongoing support is IT’s responsibility. It is not enough to just define high level ownership, as the devil is always in the details – accountability for each step must be clearly defined.

What are the steps to implementing a new technology and who does what?

1. Defining the problem – This is typically the first step. Marketing needs to clearly define and communicate what the current challenge or opportunity is that they are trying to solve.
2. Defining desired outcomes – Next, Marketing must create a proposal to explain the problem or opportunity and get internal teams to buy in to try and solve it. For large enough projects it is important to have sponsors, preferably the CMO and the CIO to ensure alignment from the top down.
3. Defining the requirements – This stage of the project is an interesting one as either Marketing or IT could be accountable for this step. Keep in mind, whoever is writing the detailed requirements should have an understanding of the Marketing goals and a good idea of what can be achieved with technology.
4. Offering up technologies – The first decision that needs to be made is whether to build or buy. If the decision is to buy, or at least start by looking at what technologies are out there, this is usually a joint effort between the Marketing and IT teams. Though IT is ultimately accountable, it is critical to get buy in from the Marketing business folks as they will the the users of this technology.
5. Choosing a vendor – The next step is to choose a vendor and this is one where truly IT and Marketing have equal footing. Sometimes the owner of the budget has a little more say in the end decision, but at the end of the day the chosen solution must solve the business need and also meet IT standards.
6. Building and integrating the solution – This is where the handoff to IT begins. Depending on the decision that has been made, they build the solution or buy one and integrate it into the existing technology stack.
7. Project management – For any large project to be successful, you need a strong project manager. Since IT leads the implementation process, it makes sense for the IT team to be ultimately responsible for ensuring timeliness and quality.
8. Testing – Initial testing is usually owned by the IT team. Once they have determined the system is stable, they will hand over testing to the Marketing team. The Marketing team then validates that the requested functionality meets their need as defined in the requirements.
9. Launch – Once the new technology is ready, it should be treated like a product launch. The Marketing team needs to position the benefits of this new technology, train users and ensure adoption. Celebrating successes together is also important once the project has launched.
10. Ongoing maintenance – At the end of the day, the IT team is the team that supports all technical issues for the Marketing team. It is important for IT to have a good handle on what has been built, have resources to support it and also a relationship with the vendor to escalate issues if necessary.

Eliminating Breakups

Relationships are never easy, they take an immense amount of effort to maintain. To that end, if the relationship with your ‘work spouse’ is on rocky terrain, here is some wise counsel to encourage you to get back on the right track.

• The first, of course, is to follow a similar process to the one above. Lack of clarity around roles, areas of ownership and goals can cause a rift between Marketing and IT.
• Don’t go it alone. When the Marketing and IT leadership is not aligned, it sometimes results in either group managing to secure the budget and purchasing a rogue tool that may or may not meet Marketing’s needs or IT’s requirements. This serves no one well, ultimately making it a business management nightmare.
• Make critical decisions with the end in mind. When technology decisions are made for the sake of implementing shiny new technologies v.s. to enable a business need. If the technology does not solve a business problem, chances are adoption will be low and cause turmoil between the two teams.

Like a marriage, the relationship between IT and Marketing must be one of accountability, compromise and teamwork. Aligning these teams will ensure successful implementation of the technologies that solve business problems. And as you all work toward the success of your company, don’t forget to enjoy the ride!

If you are looking for your customer facing teams to be aligned, here are some tips that will guide them in the right direction.

Tips for Marketing and Sales Alignment

• 1. Executive sponsorship is key – Alignment starts at the top. If the leader of the sales team and the leader of the marketing team are not in lock step, this will permeate down into the organization. It is not required that these two leaders report into the same person, they just need to be focused on achieving the same objective and agree on the plan to get there.
• 2. Align terminology – Sales and marketing must speak the same language. This helps manage expectations between marketing and sales internally as well as in customer facing conversations. One term that often causes confusion between internal teams is the word ‘lead’. Is a lead a person or an interaction? Is it a noun or a verb? Marketing advisory firms such as Sirius Decisions advise their clients to be more granular when it comes to definitions – leads can be marketing qualified leads, sales accepted leads or sales qualified leads. Having clear definitions for all terms and metrics and communicating these helps preempt misunderstandings between sales and marketing teams.
• 3. Align goals – People manage what they are measured on. Ensuring sales and marketing teams are measured on the same end goal is one way to ensure they are working towards the same outcome. Now, I am not suggesting that marketing should have a sales quota, but just that the marketing team needs to have a ‘skin in the game’. The game being bringing in new customers and managing them through their lifecycle. One example of how this could be done is aligning compensation in a way that while the sales rep is paid on the revenue number, the marketing rep’s compensation is split between the total number of leads they bring in and the quality of lead, i.e. the leads that result in revenue.
• 4. Create a joint plan – When a team creates a plan together they are usually more vested in ensuring its success. Create a joint team plan that documents the goals, activities and expected outcomes. If everyone cannot participate in the creation of the plan, make sure the plan is documented and communicated. The plan should not just be a calendar of marketing activities, but should also include sales spiffs, promotions and other activities that will help the team achieve their set goal.

• • 5. Put SLAs (Service Level Agreements) in place – According to a Harvard Business Review, companies that try to contact potential customers within an hour of receiving queries are nearly 7 times as likely to have meaningful conversations with key decision makers as firms that try to contact prospects even an hour later. Maybe an hour is not realistic for your company, but put in place realistic SLAs or service level agreements and hold the sales team responsible for what they commit to. From a marketing perspective, the commitment should be around the the number and quality of leads. Agreeing to these and delivering on these SLAs will build trust between sales and marketing and better alignment.

• 6. Celebrate successes together – The end goal and hence success for both sales and marketing should be the same thing. What I mean by that is, the marketing team should not be celebrating just because they have delivered the committed number of leads. Success should be when both teams’ objectives are achieved. Once that happens, don’t forget to celebrate and have some fun, because at the end of the day, teams that have fun together and are happy are likely to be more productive.
• 7. Use data and technology – The good news is there is a plethora of systems and technologies which if implemented correctly can help you achieve better alignment by providing visibility into what activities are planned, which ones are working and a better understanding of the buyer. Keep in mind, the insights from these systems are only as good as the data you put in and track. Also, make sure the systems are tightly integrated so that relevant information from any system is available at the point of communication with the buyer as well as for a wider analysis.

Today the lines between sales and marketing are blurring. Marketing and Sales both influence the buyer’s journey throughout the lifecycle. It is more critical than ever that we align marketing and sales, and that they function as one team. At the end of the day it’s about communication, visibility and accountability. Irrespective of whether the communication is written, in person or virtual – they can all work. The more visibility each team has into what the other has planned, committed to and delivered – the better the team will be aligned and the smoother the buyer’s experience will be in dealing with the company.