sales and marketing - time to play nice

Well, the quarter is now over and the results are being measured.  For many, this quarter was a whisper thin success due to economic uncertainty and, as such, management wants to know why.  More often then not you will hear the old argument:

Sales: we didn’t make the quarter because the leads were weak and unqualified

Marketing: we produced the leads but the quarter was weak due to sales inability to execute

Sigh.  From my experience, when sales and marketing work well together, companies see substantial improvement because: sales cycles are shorter, market entry goes down and therefore overall cost of sales is lower which affords money to be reinvested back into the process.  When sales and marketing are on the same page, the analysis is constructive not confrontational.

Why is there this traditional conflict between these two groups?

First I would say that the two groups attract different kinds of people.  To make some generalizations: marketing people tend to be highly analytical, data oriented and project focused; sales people tend to be relationship experts painting a broader picture, with not a lot of detail, to keep things moving.  Sometimes personality type alone can create a big barrier which is why senior management needs to work hard to facilitate a stronger working relationship between the two groups.

Second, measurement of success is different.  It’s easy to measure a salespersons success - almost immediately in the bookings actual vs. target.  For marketing folks, the budget is devoted to programs and it takes much longer to know whether a program has helped create long-term advantage for the company.  The better marketing programs can be tied back to specific lead generation count and conversion to sales opportunities the better you align the success of the two groups.

Sales closes, that’s easy to understand, but what should I expect from Marketing?

There are different roles for marketing depending on where you are at as a company.  For many in the startup world, you don’t have a formal marketing group at all.  Marketing ideas come from managers, the sales force or perhaps an outside agency that is helping out.  At this point, marketing is completely geared for pushing product and the concept of ‘brand awareness’ is not even on the radar.

As the company grows, and you add a marketing person, the marketing ‘department’ starts to conduct research on size of market, choosing the best target markets and channels, determining the potential buyers motives and influences and designing collateral and programs to help the sales force attract customers and close sales.  As you expand your marketing staff from there you then pick up segmentation, targeting and positioning as well as developing the overall brand messaging (vs. products).

To be clear, Marketing plays a critical role in creating demand for a company’s offerings.  Marketing serves as the front end of the sales cycle and makes sure messaging is consistent across all mediums.  Marketing can’t due this in a vacuum and needs the support and input from sales to fine tune the story.  Sales in turn executes the sales process using the messaging provided by marketing.  In doing so sales is responsible for documenting the steps in their sales process which in turn provides feedback to marketing on the quality of the opportunities created from lead generation programs.

Where is the best place to start to get Sales and Marketing on the same page?

Get all your sales and marketing folks into a room and ask them to define what a lead is.  Seems simple, right?  wrong.  You will hear all kinds of words now: prospects, leads, touch points, impressions, … the list goes on.  As a company you need to identify what is a marketing contact, a prospect, a lead and an opportunity so that you have points of measurement in the customer cycle in a common lexicon.

What are some other tips for aligning Sales and Marketing?

At a basic level these groups should together: define the steps in the marketing and sales funnels; create clear rules of engagement (who is going to do what and when does the handoff occur?);  plan events and conferences together to see if the value perceived has ‘buy-in’; plan what collateral is needed when in the sales cycle so that it is effective (e.g. initial value proposition, solution collateral during the sales cycle, case study material or success stories); build sales territory plans together.  This list is not exhaustive but it will get you started.

Finally, get everyone to read Customer Centric Selling [Bosworth,Holland] as it is a great book which not only outlines solid selling tactics but incorporates marketing into the process as well.

I realize you are already one quarter into the year and reviewing your sales and marketing relationship is not ideal.  However, it’s going to be a tough year so why not make your conversations constructive vs. dicking around laying blame - at the end of the day the COMPANY needs to make CASH, efficiently and effectively.

Good luck!