For this sixth episode of our podcast I am glad to welcome Jeff Davis, Sales & Marketing alignment optimization expert based in Chicago and founder of the Sales Marketing Alignment Summit (SMA Summit). In this podcast, Jeff and I exchange views about how to deeply and concretely improve the collaboration and comprehension between your sales and marketing forces. I am giving you one hint: sumo wrestling team building is not enough…
You have probably read a lot about how to improve sales and marketing alignment (including this beautiful article I wrote on Jeff’s blog in January 
). It is one of the most concerning topics for any sales, marketer, manager, CMO, CFO, CEO (for everyone basically) for different reasons:
- The success of sales and marketing alignment 90% relies on the ability of the human kind to handle change, to be open-minded and to trust other counterparts, while their objectives can be fairly different (‘generate MQLs in FY2017’ vs. ‘generate revenue for Q4’),
- It all comes from the top, and we know that change the mindset of any top management is a real challenge,
- Sales and marketing non-alignment is VERY expensive for a company, and makes the difference between fairly successful companies and the most successful and admired companies.
Those are the points that Jeff and I tried to cover during this sixth episode of our BtoB Marketing Sales Podcast. Now I will stop writing and let you listen to it. Enjoy BtoB Marketing Sales people!
[Podcast is also available on iTunes: LISTEN now!]
Connect with Jeff Davis:
Jeff Davis, Founder of The Sales and Marketing Alignment Summit, has had the opportunity to work in several different roles within Sales and Marketing throughout his professional career of over a decade. With rich experiences in both Sales and Marketing, Jeff takes an extremely unique approach to business development that focuses on fusing both functions to create the best platform to engage prospects. He focuses on helping Sales and Marketing learn to speak each other’s language and better appreciate their interdependent relationship. Business development is about listening to prospects, connecting with their pain points, and demonstrating value through a product or service. This is best done when Sales and Marketing work as a cohesive team with the same goals. He has been recognized with several awards for being a top sales performer, actively does Sales coaching for startups at Chicago’s 1871 – an entrepreneurial tech hub, mentors/speaks at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and is an instructor at the Startup Institute. He regularly publishes on the topic of Sales and Marketing Alignment (SMA) on LinkedIn, Twitter, Business 2 Community and Business.com. Connect with Jeff for speaking or consulting opportunities.
