People buy differently than they used to. We can’t continue “shouting” at consumers and think they’re going the listen...they won’t. Today’s consumer has power. They have caller ID, they have voice mail, they can fast forward commercials, and they have many other tools that allow them to ignore the many messages being “shouted” at them.

Power has shifted to the buyer and the buying process has been democratized. Consumers decide what they want to listen to. In case you’re not paying attention, the game has changed small business owners and CEOs. The expectation of the customer is that we empower them to choose us, so empower them to find you wherever they look (hint: 86% of people go to the Internet as part of their buying process [hint, hint: If you don’t think Sr. Executives are going there, think about their direct reports they send to do research for them, they go there]). Furthermore, customers expect a dialog and not monologue.

Since marketing is no longer about campaign and more about creating and empowering a dialogs with the customer, alignment is mission critical.This alignment is also critical because your sales professionals have direct access to the customer with social networking sites such as LinkedIn.

It is estimated the misalignment of sales and marketing costs the US Fortune 100 $225 billion annually. Based on my experience, I'm certain the same challenges face small to mid-size businesses. Executives can no longer turn a blind eye to the alignment of sales and marketing. The process for lead conversion, lead nurturing and sales execution need to be seamless any interruption in this sequence can have severe penalties on sales performance. Whereas, the next competitor from anywhere in the world is only a "Google" query away.

Three signs sales and marketing are not aligned and they are costing you big money.

1.Your company does not have the sales process in writing from click to close.

2.If a colleague asked you how your sales team is using social media to create and nurture leads and you don't know the answer.

3. If you ask your marketing leader what is the process for scoring and transitioning leads to the salespeople and they can't produce a written process or answer.