The Ongoing Alignment Challenge’
For decades, businesses have wrestled with one persistent challenge: aligning marketing and sales. This isn’t new, and it’s not going away anytime soon. Different personalities, departmental cultures, and contrasting mindsets often create friction. Each side has its own responsibilities and goals, yet they inevitably overlap.
In the print industry, this challenge is even more pronounced. Print companies aren’t just selling a product, they’re providing solutions that must adapt to countless industries, each with unique needs and expectations. Getting marketing and sales aligned is no longer optional; it’s essential for growth, retention, and profitability.
The ‘Messy Middle’ Problem
The greatest point of misalignment often lives in what we call the messy middle.
Here’s why…
- Marketing’s Domain – Generating awareness, driving leads, nurturing prospects.
- Sales’ Domain – Building relationships, closing deals, and managing customer acquisition.
- The Messy Middle – That overlapping space where marketing bleeds into sales. It’s the gray area where both departments feel responsible, or worse, feel ownership, over the same activities.
When marketing tries to move deeper into the sales funnel, or sales attempts to own early-stage engagement, friction arises. Without clarity, the messy middle becomes a battleground instead of a bridge. And because customers move fluidly between marketing and sales touchpoints, the lack of alignment directly impacts results.
Read the rest of this story on Printing Impressions.
