Lack of communication with marketing is the biggest alignment challenge for B2B salespeople, according to a report from Televerde.

When asked to name the biggest challenge in aligning sales with marketing, 37% of respondents cited lack of regular communication as their biggest hurdle.

A third of respondents said a difference in the way sales and marketing successes are measured was a key hindrance, while the lead qualification process (30%) and differences in what’s important (27%) were other minor stumbling blocks.​

This perceived lack of communication is further supported by the number of meetings between the two departments: 40% of salespeople meet weekly or daily with marketing, while a worrying 44% meet with their marketing peers only monthly at best.

The report also uncovered which tools and activities from marketing are the most useful to sales, with 

industry events the most commonly cited

.

How can marketing help sales secure more deals?

When asked what marketing can do to help sales win more deals, the most commonly cited asset was better messaging: which, interestingly, is more important to sales professionals than more/better qualified leads and higher quality marketing materials.

And it’s not all doom and gloom for B2B marketers, with 77% of salespeople rating the quality of leads they receive from marketing as ‘good’ to ‘excellent’, and 80% saying marketing and sales are ‘aligned’ or ‘very aligned’ at their companies.

Contrastingly, separate research from B2B Marketing and Cyance revealed almost half (48%) of B2B marketers 

send leads to sales without scoring

, underlining another area for immediate improvement.

The B2B Marketing report also found marketers’ top concern about how leads are handled by sales was that they 

weren’t followed up properly

.

The Televerde research comprised responses from over 200 sales leaders who sell B2B products or services.