What is alignment?
Dictionary definitions of alignment include things like “a position of agreement or alliance,” “an arrangement of groups in relation to one another,” and “the state of being aligned.”
This is good stuff! After all, Socrates rightly claimed “the beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.”
In the case of alignment there is not one universal definition. So, ironically, this is a great place to start. Socrates’ insight logically extends to “the beginning of alignment is the definition of terms.”
Alignment in a business context needs to be “amongst” and “to” things. It does little good for a team to be aligned but have nowhere to go, and vice versa. Consider musicians that are not both in tune AND playing the same song – it’s unpleasant noise.
The “amongst” for commercial team alignment includes sales, marketing, and product functions. These are broad categories that also include sales enablement, sales operations, marketing operations, delivery, customer success, customer support, and related teams that have a strong connection to sustaining revenue generation.
Ideally the “to” is a motivating and market-centered purpose, vision, mission, or strategy. Minimally, the “to” is a goal with recognizable attributes of a SMART goal – specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-bound. Perhaps surprisingly, it’s not critical that the “to” is correct at first. With other best practices in place, there will be a clear signal that a different destination is needed.
Look at the sturdy step stool framework of commercial alignment for a visual representation of how the pieces work together.
Four conditions exist in the aligned state:
Teammates can accurately describe the desired outcome, the plan to achieve it, and have good reasons to believe it’s achievable
Customers agree that the company’s offerings are valuable in a differentiated and meaningful way
Marketing and sales materials (website, blogs, social media sites, sales enablement content, etc.) are attractive, impressive, and compelling to target customers
The sales team has what they need to diagnose customer problems and prescribe a winning solution
Misalignment is costly and symptoms are recognizable and common:
Missed sales targets
Budget and schedule overruns
Low employee engagement
High employee turnover
Complaints from one group about the others
Meetings. Oh, so many meetings.
Reviews, sign-offs, and approvals, oh my!
There are simple and effective tools that drive alignment. If moving toward alignment would be beneficial…