Aligned . . . a story for improving sales & marketing effectiveness Aligned is the first nonfiction business book to offer a clear, narrative depiction of the value of sales and marketing alignment and the process of how to go about achieving it. Instead of promoting an academic sales and marketing theory, this book engages the reader with a story that presents the practical application of the sales and marketing alignment theory through the lens of two very different marketing services agencies and their prospective clients.

Oscar Wilde once quipped, “Nothing succeeds like success.” Concerning sales and marketing, he was right. A successful sales and marketing process, coupled with proper alignment of the disciplines of sales and marketing, leads to growth in revenues and profits, the true measure of business success.

Aligned is divided into three parts. It begins with an introduction of the dilemma facing a young technology firm as it tries to market and sell a new service offering. The book then takes the reader on a journey that defines both the customer buying and enterprise selling processes. These definitions provide the framework by which the author explains the components of a sales and marketing process whose steps are shared and owned. Aligned is an engaging, informative read.

Chapter

1. Advanced Technologies
2. The World According to MarCom Solutions
3. The World According to GroupOne
4. Advanced Technologies Meets MarCom Solutions
5. Enter GroupOne
6. AT’s Customer Buying Process
7. The Perfect Selling Process
8. The Sales and Marketing Alignment Process
9. Narrowing the Field
10. MarCom Solutions versus GroupOne

Appendix

Elements of Sales and Marketing Alignment
Sales and Marketing Alignment Continuum
Suggested Reading

In Aligned, Maurice R. Parisien has written an engaging book about successful sales and marketing methods that uses an unusual technique: a conversational method showing how individual people approach marketing—making mistakes and correcting them. Reading like a novel, in Aligned, Parisien teaches modern successful marketing tactics in a refreshing way. Anyone who wants to learn about effective sales and marketing could not go wrong by reading this book.

Arthur Middleton Hughes

Vice President
The Database Marketing Institute, Ltd.
Author of six best selling marketing books including

Strategic Database Marketing, 3rd Edition
(McGraw-Hill 2006)

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Successful instructors and writers know that context is necessary for a novice to learn and master complex new topics. One of the best methods to supply that context is through fictional narrative. In his book Aligned, Maurice Parisien uses experiential narrative to introduce marketing strategies and tactics in an engaging and understandable way. His approach provides an excellent platform to introduce basic concepts to an audience with no previous marketing experience. Aligned should be on the reading list of any entrepreneur starting a business where sales and marketing will drive success.

Gary Ford
Assistant Professor and Director of Graduate Studies
School of Communications Webster University
St. Louis, Missouri

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When you get down in the trenches of business with Maurice Parisien, be prepared for learning things in a different way. It’s a given that he has the expertise in the field of aligning marketing and sales, a challenge to many businesses under the best of circumstances. Add to this expertise his penchant for presenting and educating through story telling and you have an unbeatable one-two punch. Anyone who’s ever struggled with starting or building a business will find serious help in the pages of Aligned.

Don Kornblet

Business Owner
Author of Business Success Secrets

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In the tradition of Patrick Lencioni, Maurice has crafted in Aligned a business book that is fun to read—a “page turner” that will benefit both those on the agency and client side of the table. He addresses the problems that are all too common in many businesses: the alignment of marketing and sales goals—in fact, the creation of meaningful marketing and sales goals—are all too often out of synch or undefined. His unique approach takes the growth challenge of a client and shows us the inner workings of two marketing services firms who vie for the prize. This is a business book worth the time to read and one that keeps you excited as it subliminally makes you take a hard look at your own company as you read.

Warren A. Hunter

Chairman & CEO
DMW Worldwide LLC

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Aligned is an engaging tale of two marketing services agencies—one enlightened, one “old school.” With a plot that unfolds like a novel, the reader is treated to insightful business analysis delivered with a user-friendly, approachable style. After just a few page turns, you feel like you personally know the lead characters and are emotionally connected with their business situations. You realize that what on the surface seems like an engaging storyline has actually been quite instructive in demonstrating the value of alignment. The book also sheds light on the emotional toll situations and decisions exact on business owners faced with difficult, real-world challenges. Importantly, it offers a methodical road map to success, based on the principles of alignment.

Aligned is a rare find among business books that takes the reader on a journey that is not just instructive in the value of aligning marketing and sales but is also captivating in its style.

Mary M. Dean

Vice President, Innovation

Nestle Purina PetCare Company

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The art of writing a great book requires the unique ability to tell a story, and in Aligned Maurice Parisien demonstrates his ability to do just that. Aligned follows the journey of two organizations that are driving toward the same goal, but with very different results. Throughout Aligned, Mr. Parisien brings the reader into the story to the point where he lives through every decision and outcome feeling both the highs and lows of each fateful step forward that the story takes. When you read Aligned you’re immediately compelled to think about your own organization, its vision, strategy and execution. Aligned is a must read for any business leader.

Mark Shipley

Vice President, Loyalty Marketing

Sears Holdings Corporation

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Alignment of sales and marketing has been elusive since Albert D. Lasker cranked up the marketing machine a hundred years ago. This is an easy to read, fictionalized account of a struggling company which is an exact copy of millions of businesses that exist today; the problems Parisien outlines are their problems. Companies that succeed in spite of their nonexistent sales and marketing alignment do so at the cost of slower growth and lower profitability. The ten chapters in this book tackle the evasively obvious issues that are easier to solve with his roadmap. There are take-aways at the end of each chapter and reproducible charts and graphs which you can actually understand. I like how he hammers on marketing ROI and sales accountability.

• Ideal for new marketers
• A must read for startup company presidents
• A necessity for larger companies that complain about sales and marketing’s lack of alignment but fail to fix it.
• Agencies, whether branding, direct, or one of the many Internet agencies should read this. I mean seriously read it.

James W. Obermayer

Executive Director

Sales Lead Management Association