As I read this all I can say is I DON’T get this at all. Then who are these marketers aligned with? “Intermittent relations and interactions” – sounds like a dysfunctional relationship. Should we start “couples counseling” for sales and marketing teams? I am not saying that they should hold hands and sing kum-ba-yah just be aligned on the “ground attack marketing” that is being done specifically like – events, demand/lead generation, SEM, etc. Isn’t sales (or any other revenue generation organization) in their business the customer of these marketers? Most B2B companies spend 70% or more of their budgets on those initiatives.

How aligned are you with sales? Do you share more than 50% of the goals each quarter/year? Are your bonuses tied to new customer wins? Up-sold dollars to current customers? I am very curious (or just hopeful that is 80% non-alignment is way off).

Here is the article from BtoB:

CMO Council study finds companies lag in aligning marketing and sales
Story posted: May 28, 2008 - 1:17 pm EDT

Palo Alto, Calif.—The majority of marketers lag in their ability to closely align sales and marketing, according to a new study by the Chief Marketing Officer Council.

According to an online survey of 506 sales and marketing professionals, 55% of respondents said their companies have not yet implemented formal programs, systems or processes for unifying sales and marketing functions.

Fewer than 20% of respondents said their sales and marketing organizations are extremely collaborative, while more than half said the two groups had intermittent relations and interactions.

Also, about half of respondents said they had trouble finding customer account data, did not have enough information or had none at all.

The survey was conducted by the CMO Council and the Coalition to Leverage and Optimize Sales Effectiveness (CLOSE).
—Kate Maddox