• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, May 16, 2022

Email teams sensing a disconnect between marketing and the customer experience are correct: Only 29% of firms say their marketing, sales and customer success units are fully aligned, according to The RevOps Difference, a study from Pedowitz Group, conducted by Ascend2. 

Of course, 69% are trying to align them, including 77% of marketers, but they have a way to go.  

The problem is that firms tend to focus on marketing-sales alignment, and not as much on customer success, the study says.  

The outlook varies by department: Only 21% of customer success respondents feel there is full alignment, versus 32% in sales, and 36% in marketing. 

The failure to align may explain why only 18% rate their customer experience as excellent, or best in class. Still, 54% say their experience is above average.

Full alignment provides many benefits, including: 

• Improving customer experience — 58% 
• Improving conversion/access rate — 41%
• Improving the use of data — 34%
• Improving employee experience — 34% 
• Establishing a unified view of customer — 23% 
• Enabling scalability — 21%
• Improving credibility of KPIs — 20% 
• Enable adaptability — 18% 
• Minimizing workplace politics — 12%

Moreover, 86% strongly agree that providing an exceptional customer experience significantly improves revenue growth.

On the downside, misalignment can result in these consequences:

• Missed opportunities for revenue — 62% 
• Poor customer experience — 59%
• Wasted time — 50% 
• Poor employee experience — 38%
• Wasted budget — 37% 

And it’s not easy to provide an exceptional customer experience. The mail obstacles are:

• Lack of communications — 46% 
• Misaligned efforts and goals between teams — 42%
• Lack of unified view of the customer — 33% 
• Inability to acquire and retain talent — 32% 
• Ineffective leadership — 29%
• Inadequate or inaccurate data — 28%
• Missing or inadequate technology — 25%
• Lack of communication between teams — 46%
• Misaligned efforts and goals between teams — 42%

On another front, 33% expect to far exceed their revenue goals in the year ahead, while 50% believe they will be slightly ahead. Another 15% say they have met their goals and few foresee a decline. 

In contrast, 16% said their revenue came in far above their goals last year, while 46% said it came in slightly ahead. Another 26% basically met their goals, and 12% failed to meet them.  

Marketers are the most optimistic, with 73% expecting to beat their goals.  

The top means of improving revenue growth in the year ahead are: 

• Improving the customer experience — 56%
• Improving alignment of teams — 35%
• Improving data quality — 34%
• Improving employee acquisition and retention — 33% 
• Optimizing technology stacks — 20%
• Increasing data quality — 19%
• Unifying data — 18% 
• Evaluating organizational structure — 18%

The greatest challenges to providing an exceptional customer experience are:

• Lack of communication between teams — 46%
• Misaligned efforts and goals between teams — 42% 
• Lack of unified view of the customer — 33% 
• Inability to acquire and retain talent — 32% 
• Ineffective leadership — 29% 
• Inadequate or inaccurate data — 28% 
• Missing or inadequate technology — 25% 
• Lack of communication between teams — 46% 
• Misaligned efforts and goals between teams — 42% 

Marketers are more likely to complain about inaccurate data (36%), while customer success people gripe about ineffective leadership (34%).  

Ascend2 surveyed 507 professionals.