Communicating Brand Values in Cross-Functional Teams

Without internal alignment, your brand will fracture externally. The best brands start from the inside out. Your logo might be beautiful. Your messaging might be sharp. But if your team doesn’t understand or embody the brand — it shows. Employees are brand ambassadors… whether trained or not. And misalignment internally always leaks into the customer experience. → Framework Model: The Inside-Out Brand Alignment Loop 1. Belief → Do employees understand the “why” behind the brand? 2. Behavior → Are they empowered to act in alignment with it? 3. Experience → Is the culture felt at every customer touchpoint? → When those three break down, you get: ↳ Inconsistent messaging ↳ Brand promises not lived out ↳ Confused teams = confused customers Let’s flip that. → Things to put into motion: ↳ Make brand onboarding part of team onboarding. ↳ Share brand values as decision filters — not wall posters. ↳ Use internal language that mirrors your external promise. When your people get it, your customers feel it. Clarity becomes culture. And culture becomes competitive edge. → 𝗤𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂: Does your team understand your brand as well as your customers do? → 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲: What’s the biggest barrier to internal brand alignment? A) Vague mission/values B) Siloed departments C) Leadership disconnect D) No consistent training → Vote + add your own experience in the comments. → Let’s unpack it ⬇️

Over the years, I've discovered the truth: Game-changing products won't succeed unless they have a unified vision across sales, marketing, and product teams. When these key functions pull in different directions, it's a death knell for go-to-market execution. Without alignment on positioning and buyer messaging, we fail to communicate value and create disjointed experiences. So, how do I foster collaboration across these functions? 1) Set shared goals and incentivize unity towards that North Star metric, be it revenue, activations, or retention. 2) Encourage team members to work closely together, building empathy rather than skepticism of other groups' intentions and contributions. 3) Regularly conduct cross-functional roadmapping sessions to cascade priorities across departments and highlight dependencies. 4) Create an environment where teams can constructively debate assumptions and strategies without politics or blame. 5) Provide clarity for sales on target personas and value propositions to equip them for deal conversations. 6) Involve all functions early in establishing positioning and messaging frameworks. Co-create when possible. By rallying together around customers’ needs, we block and tackle as one team towards product-market fit. The magic truly happens when teams unite towards a shared mission to delight users!

The most powerful growth engine I've ever seen wasn't a brilliant marketing campaign, revolutionary sales approach, or customer success initiative. It was getting all three functions to actually talk to each other. I've watched companies invest millions in sophisticated tech stacks and expert teams, yet still struggle with the basics. Marketing creates leads that sales doesn't want. Sales makes promises customer success can't deliver. And customer success discovers insights that never make it back to marketing. These departmental silos are growth killers. Breaking down these walls doesn't require a complex restructure or expensive technology. It starts with something far more fundamental. Creating shared goals and genuine human connections. Through years of working across different organizations, I've found several approaches that have consistently helped bridge these divides. They're not universal solutions, but they've made a meaningful difference: 1. Unified Metrics That Matter When each department has different success measures, conflict is inevitable. Marketing celebrates lead volume, while sales focuses on deal size, while customer success prioritizes retention. Instead, align around shared metrics like customer lifetime value or revenue from existing customers. 2. Regular Cross-Pollination Nothing builds understanding like walking in someone else's shoes. Create regular opportunities for team members to experience life in other departments: - Have marketers join sales calls - Bring salespeople into customer success reviews - Include customer success in marketing planning sessions 3. The Customer Journey Council Establish a cross-functional team with representatives from each department that meets regularly to discuss specific customer experiences. Review actual customer journeys, identify gaps, and collectively solve problems. 4. Shared Celebration Rituals Create traditions that celebrate cross-functional wins, not just departmental victories. When a customer renews and expands their contract, that's a win for the entire revenue team. 5. Language Matters Pay attention to how people talk about other departments. Replace "they don't understand what we need" with "we haven't effectively communicated our needs." This subtle shift transforms blame into responsibility. Breaking down silos creates a fundamentally better customer experience. When all revenue functions work as one team, customers feel understood, supported, and valued throughout their entire journey. What's one step you've taken to improve cross-functional collaboration in your organization? --- This cross-functional approach guides my work as an on-demand CMO. I help growth-focused leaders build marketing strategies that align seamlessly with sales and customer success goals. If you're looking to transform siloed departments into a unified revenue engine, let's connect.