The Power of a Clear Objective

by Jordan-Ann Powell | Mar 30, 2021

When your team is aligned for the same purpose, you can move better, and even faster. I’m writing today to say that if you have more than one person working toward the same goal, you will reach your desired results. But if they’re not working together toward the same goal, while you may reach your desired results, you will definitely experience pain and frustration along the way. 

One of the truths outlined in the introduction of Vajre & Spett’s ABM is B2B book states, “Your Silos Should Burn to the Ground.” The purpose of this truth is to debunk the common practice within businesses to keep sales, marketing, and customer service teams separated. It’s a long historical practice that businesses keep these teams separate – marketing creates awareness, sales closes the deals, and customer service deals with the problems. But, think of all the gaps your customer feels in between! Bring these teams together, create shared goals, and operate with cross-functional clear objectives. You will be stronger as a business and your customers will feel the consistency – leading to greater lifetime value.

As we work with business leaders, I have noticed a few consistent practices amongst the successful ones. Here’s what they are doing: 

Define what success looks like for the business as a whole.

Establish your company goals and share them with your team (and your partners!). Use this as the opportunity to unify your team with the same objective. This includes bringing your marketing partners together and communicating with them as a whole.

Bring your teams together early and often.

Remove the silos! Inspire your teams to work together to reach your business goals. Your close rates will increase with the right leads coming in the door. And, your customers will stay longer if the relationship begins with clear expectations. 

Address issues and opportunities in short-term and long-term cadences.

As you’re bringing your team together, establish a regular and expected meeting cadence. Short-term discussions (weekly/monthly) are used to review tasks and issues that urgently affect the business. Use your long-term meetings (every 90 days) to review your progress toward your business goals and set responsibilities to keep you on track.

Ultimately, the power of a clear objective set early on is kept through accountability across your team. How do you unify your team? How do you keep them inspired and marching toward the goals set? I’ve seen this power in the work across Syrup and many of our clients, and would love to learn from other businesses doing great things with great people.