When Sales and Marketing Stars Collide

Most of our clients contact us because they have sales performance issues.

After a few questions we invariably discover that while there is plenty of room for sales performance improvement in both technique and process, the real problem is lack of inbound leads due to poor marketing execution.

Another common symptom is finger-pointing, with sales blaming marketing for poor quality lead flow and marketing blaming sales for squandering valuable marketing leads.

The impact of non-alignment between sales and marketing on business performance is becoming a hot topic globally for corporations demanding greater return on marketing and sales investment. A recent article in Harvard Business review by Kotler, Rackham, and Krishnaswamy, lists higher market entry costs, longer sales cycles, and higher cost of sales as consequences of the strained relationship. *

The study found that friction between the two departments harms an organization in two ways: - it wastes resources and hobbles profitability. Resources are wasted when the marketing department produces research, collateral materials and sales training that the salespeople cannot (or will not) use.

Profit suffers when the sales people are not talking to those prospective customers who are likely to be the most receptive to the organization's products or services and who are also likely to be the most profitable- information that comes (or at least should come) from the marketing department.

Ultimately the effectiveness of the sales force and marketing programs are seriously compromised.

Excellent sales and marketing performance doesn't just happen...its a process.

1. Success begins with aligning sales and marketing messaging in a Customer Messaging Architecture to reflect your company's competitive DNA and how using the products/services create value.
2. Product "Win-themes" from the Customer Messaging Architecture are then mapped into best-practices Buyer-Relevant -Messaging tm templates, - predictable conversations with targeted-buyers around how the product creates value in helping buyers achieve business goals.
3.  The Templates are then delivered to direct and channel sales execs., on a Just-in-Time basis  to enable a sales team to engage and converse easily with targeted buyers around how your products or services can create value in solving problems or achieving business goals.
4. Once these critical marketing tasks are completed, it's time to train the sales and channels teams to use the messaging and to improve their sales skills and execution of the sales process.