Th role of account-based marketing in aligning sales and marketing for customer-centric growth : case study of Nolte Küchen Libya

Abstract

Sales and marketing alignment has always been recognized as the major force driving business success in B2B markets. Ideally structured sales and marketing functions could help them attain higher revenue generation, better lead conversion, and great customer retention than their counterparts who have separate sales and marketing departments working at cross purposes (Kotler et al., 2006). However, despite its strategic importance, misalignment between both functions has remained a chronic issue, particularly in markets characterized by traditional sales-oriented approaches, where marketing is often undervalued (Svensson et al., 2023). The focus of this paper is on Account-Based Marketing (ABM) aimed at reinstituting sales and marketing alignment, mainly in economies where firms operate within complex B2B ecosystems that demand a strategic and personalized engagement model (Mogaji et al., 2023).

Sales and marketing misalignment results in B2B industries having long cycles in the sales pipeline, multiplicity of decision-makers, and complexity in the buyer journeys (Pal, 2019). Such research provides the hidden indicators that these misaligned organizations will suffer from inefficient lead management, messages to customers being misaligned, and resources to marketing being wasted, hindering the revenue (Lauzi et al., 2023). B2B firms often employ long- term strategies of relationship development instead of the mass-market strategies associated with B2C marketing, and, for that reason, cooperation between sales and marketing is vital to the sustainable growth of B2B organizations (Gounaris & Almoraish, 2024).