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Guest post by: Jesse Hopps Become an Author

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Measure your Marketing/Business Alignment Being aligned with your business seems very simple and straightforward, yet many organizations feel that their Marketing department is not fully aligned with Senior Management. Measure your business alignment with Demand Metric's downloadable Marketing/Business Alignment Tooland understand your current maturity level.

Benefits of Marketing/Business Alignment:

• Reduced Time to Market- when marketing understands the business model implicitly, Product Development becomes much more efficient.
• Increased Buy-in & Executive Support- strong communication and the ability to measure competencies will provide greater levels of credibility.
• Improved Recruitment & Retention- when marketing plays a key role in hiring & developing their own staff, it's easier to attract new talent and retain star employees.

What are the Levels of Process Maturity?

• Level 1: Initial/Ad Hoc Process- when processes are not standardized, measured, and managed, poor business alignment is a common result.
• Level 2: Repeatable/Intuitive Process- an example of this level of maturity would be to have strategic planning meetings 'as necessary'.
• Level 3: Defined Process- this level results from the documentation of a particular policy or procedure that is adhered to on a regular basis.
• Level 4: Managed & Measured Process- processes are not only standardized, but also benchmarked and measured for improvement.
• Level 5: Optimized Process- full business alignment can take place when processes are tweaked over time to incorporate Best Practices, and organizational & market changes.

Key Areas to Benchmark Process Maturity Levels:

• Communication- getting a grip on how well your business understands Marketing, and vice-versa, is critical. Ensure there are no major disconnects.
• Competency/Value Measurement- if you are not operating with business and Marketing metrics, benchmarking, or assessing the value of investments, you will have difficulty justifying your budget, or any incremental spending.
• Strategic Planning & Governance- many organizations develop a competitive advantage by developing mature strategic planning & governance processes. Determine if your organization is working at a Best Practice level, or risk losing business.

Action Plan:

1. Benchmark Current Maturity Levels- download our Marketing/Business Alignment Tool to identify your initial maturity levels.
2. Distribute to Senior Management- send the Marketing/Business Alignment Tool to your peers to get their perspective on your capabilities.
3. Compare your Results- gather each completed Scorecard from the tool, and compare the results. You may be very surprised with what you see. A discussion around the areas of disparity should highlight any major issues.
4. Average the Scores- take the mean score for each category and use that value to benchmark your current maturity levels.
5. Assess your Strengths & Weaknesses- work hard to improve areas that are scored poorly, and exploit the areas where you are already doing well.
6. Revisit in 6-12 Months- recalculate your average score after 6-12 months of working through each process area. Showing an improvement over time will be instrumental in keeping this performance measurement process intact.
   
   Bottom-line:
   
   The cross-functional role of Marketing in your organization needs to be agreed on by Senior Management. Benchmark your maturity levels to understand how to optimize your department's relationship with business stakeholders.
   
   

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