Creating Alignment between Marketing and Sales | Winston Henderson | 451

Are your marketing and sales teams aligned to the overall business goals of your company, or is each team focused on their own success? In this episode, we sit down with Winston Henderson, Founder of ICAD Marketing and ICAD Equip. Winston has worked in both sales and marketing in the past, and now focuses on revenue alignment, and using thought leadership to bring sales and marketing together as a single, unified force. Our conversation starts with Winston's definition of "revenue alignment," and what it looks like when done successfully. Winston shapes our understanding of the power that content marketing and sales have when working together, and how they can define the customer journey - driving revenue for the entire organization. When this happens, neither department is focused on their own metrics or wins. Instead, they unify their efforts, understanding when to take the lead role and when to hand it off, and building a partnership that has exponentially more strength together than either might achieve on their own. With so many organizations struggling to find this kind of alignment, Winston shares a few of the most common reasons why teams can't unify - and three things you can start doing right now to bring yours into sync. In addition, we discuss the role that empathy plays in finding alignment throughout an organization. Winston explains that teams need to be able to step out of their bubble in order to better understand how the other functions in your company operate, and their value to your work and to the whole. Once teams have that understanding, they can better see the system as a whole, and take steps to bridge any gaps that might exist between team functions. That kind of alignment is powerful, and can change the game. Three Key Takeaways: * Don't confuse thought leadership with content marketing. Smart leaders understand the difference, and how to best use each function. * You can achieve better alignment by spending time with those outside of your role. Learn to understand other functions and perspectives, and your organization will do better as a whole. * Understand why your current customers are choosing to do business with you. This can help you better fulfill their needs, and build a strategy to increase customer satisfaction, org reputation, and revenue.