Bridging the gap between Marketing & Sales- Why? & How? Why? Most people reading this blog would wrinkle their forehead and ask why? My question to them would be: Why not? and if not, how else?
I have worked in companies where the two departments – Marketing & Sales are pitched against each other to become Marketing v/s Sales. The outcome – unhealthy competition, no focus, no one gains neither the marketing team nor the sales team and the biggest loser is the company.
Why? Is the connection really needed? Marketing can support Sales with the most updated market intelligence, bring focus, bring right direction to sales initiatives, evaluate the best market opportunities and bring image & brand recognition for a company/product. Sales gets a lead & head start and eventually can close more business. Business development is the ultimate result of combining Marketing & Sales.
Why can’t sales personnel themselves do the above mentioned activities? Firstly, where is the time? For people who don’t know and take these activities lightly, doing the above mentioned activities requires skill & expertise, specific marketing tools, research, and a lot of thinking. Sales people work at break neck speed for target accomplishment, and have their focus on closing deals or on higher stages of the sales cycle. It makes sense to have an expert on the job for these activities. Marketing professionals are experts at researching this information and in the right way. They can give you the best and the most accurate information on target audience, industry trends and demands, market potential, market analysis, best value propositions, best pitches for your company, where to target, how to target, how to sell and what you really need to sell.
Marketing can help Sales to arrive at conclusions such as: what are the strenghts & weaknesses of a company/product, what are the competitive advantages of a company/product…………. Marketing can help with competitor analysis and find an USP for the company to buzz about and beat competition. Marketing can support sales with collaterals, presentations, case studies that help in convincing prospects and go a long way in converting leads into real deals. Marketing can help build a brand, image, market presence and internet presence to make it easy for sales to penetrate the assigned market. Marketing campaigns can bring leads which can be taken up by sales people for deal closure. Marketing can help in post sales analysis- to improvise on approaches for better market penetration and improving the value proposition. Marketing can help is deciding where to expand, how to expand, which technology areas to enter & exit, which domains to take up, which market is most profitable and how to achieve all this. The symbiosis of these two divisions can help create a powerful army for a company to churn record revenues. This is Business Development- Marketing & Sales together.
After all Why are we all in this business?…… To earn money right! How? How is the connection possible. A major role in establishing this connection is played by the top management. The management has to decide clearly on roles & responsibilities and the processes to gel the two.
Processes: Sales processes can be made consequent to marketing processes. Marketing activities that generate leads such as email campaigns, internet advertising campaign, publicity campaigns need to be seamlessly collaborated with the sales processes so that these leads can be further pursued by sales.
Communication: Continuous communication through meetings between sales and marketing is extremely essential to create a cooperative environment, clear vision and common objective & goals.
Reporting: a strong reporting system that keeps both divisions updated of each others activities- for example if there is an advertising campaign being run by marketing for a particular sector it makes sense for the sales guys to hit out at the same sector to catch as many opportunities being generated through the hype. It is like marketing is driving a pool of fish in one direction in a large lake and the sales guys are ready with the fishing nets to grab them all.
Right management comes from wisdom & common sense, it comes neither from knowledge nor experience nor learning. Combining Marketing & Sales is possible through a wise management team or leadership that sees the benefits and the potential in creating a powerful army that eventually works as one body towards a common vison.
I am sure all the CEOs and other CXXs will agree.
