3 Sales and Marketing Alignment Success Stories That Will Inspire You

Success stories are always great for inspiration. We’re excited to introduce Steve Capozzi, a technology industry Channel Marketing Executive. Steve will be sharing 3 Sales and Marketing Alignment success stories with us, from the time when Vengreso CMO Bernie Borges helped Steve and the Fortune 500 company he was working for achieve its goals by providing digital sales and marketing solutions.

According to Vengreso CDO Phil Gerbyshak in his article “Marketing and Sales Alignment: Not Easy, but Necessary,” people in the sales profession understand the value of Sales and Marketing Alignment, but few know how to actually construct that alignment. As a result, the sales and marketing departments frequently play the blame game, and this is what Steve and company were experiencing before Bernie and his team of digital marketing specialists stepped in to provide structure. And so the Corporate Partner Social Strategic Document was created and, as the cliché we love to hate goes, the rest is history. You can view the interview directly below.

Partner Marketing – Sales and Marketing Alignment Success

Success Story #1: Partner Marketing

As a Fortune 500 company, other companies were always wanting to create partnerships with Steve’s company, just to be associated with its name. But some of these “partners” weren’t always actively participating in the partnership programs through content or other contributions. Steve categorized these partners as “deadwood.”

So, the goal was to revive these deadwood partners. Through Sales and Marketing Alignment, the teams worked on a content strategy for ALL partners to participate—yes, even the deadwood ones. As soon as the request went out, Steve’s Partner Marketing team began receiving content from all sides. Bernie’s team helped develop the wireframe for the partner section of the corporate website and it was a quick success; the deadwoods started to engage again! An added bonus to all of this:  as all of this content began showing up on the site, it gave prospective clients a glimpse of the benefits to partnering with Steve’s company, thus, accelerating lead generation for new revenue-producing partners. That alone was a huge win!

Success Story #2: Targeting Your Audience for a Successful Event

Steve and company partnered with an international client – a large company. They co-branded a huge event in the oil and gas industry segment, but there were challenges with marketing communication. As a result, tensions mounted when, a month before the event, there were only a few confirmed attendees. Reluctant to cancel the event because it would be embarrassing for both companies and their relationship, Steve reached out to Bernie’s team and they were able to quickly strategize with the representative in charge of the client relationship. A social media-centric communication plan was constructed and implemented quickly because there already existed an alignment between the sales and marketing teams. They started targeting specific audiences on Linkedin and Twitter, and engaged closely with them about the event. After only two weeks, the event registration was filled to capacity. The client was so pleased that they did a live video chat during the event to congratulate Steve and his Partner Marketing team for their contribution.

Success Story #3: Digital Sales Transformation Training w Senior Sales Force

Steve’s company has a group comprised of Alliance Sales Representatives, consisting mostly of senior salespeople who were thriving in sales long before social media was a thing. As part of the Sales and Marketing Alignment program, the goal was to teach these professionals how to integrate social media into their successful sales process. Steve also wanted to make better use of them as resources, especially since they are considered experts. And so Bernie developed a personalized training program specifically for them. The program conducted a series of social selling “coaching sessions” that match the capabilities of each person, with some individuals receiving coaching once a week, and others on a monthly basis. With a small amount of consistent effort, their mindset toward social media changed favorably. They are no longer intimidated and overwhelmed by social media. Most reported back that Social Media is actually quite easy to use in their sales process.

After telling his success stories, Steve continued by saying Sales and Marketing Alignment allowed everybody to have skin in the game, resulting in more success across the Alliance Sales team and less finger pointing. As with their Channel Partners, engaging them through social media channels resulted in more interested companies who want the same kind of partnership.

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If you want to improve your personal brand or your sales performance, you can start by watching this 30 min. webinar where we revealed 6 Digital Selling Strategies for LinkedIn.