Aligning Strategy and Sales

Preface

Here is one big thing I have learned from running a business, consulting with companies around the world, and teaching executives and MBAs at a good business school for nearly twenty years: for most firms, the largest, most difficult, and most expensive part of strategy implementation is aligning sales and go-to-market efforts with the company's espoused strategies and goals.

This alignment challenge is the largest in multiple dimensions. Doing this well is essential for marketplace success and company valuations. A key to meeting growth potential is eliminating the gulf between big-picture strategy and field execution. Yet, in a recent survey of more than eighteen hundred executives, more than half (56 percent) say their biggest challenges ...