The "Bad" – trying to compete with half a team
The CMO Council released research, "Driving the Bottom Line from the Front Line" (exec summary here and Marketing Charts summary here), that shows most companies still don't get it when it comes to Sales and Marketing effectiveness and go-to-market strategy. While the study covers multiple issues with companies' go-to-market capabilities, I was particularly interested/saddened to see that less than 20% say their sales and marketing organizations are extremely collaborative, and moreover less than half have taken any steps to integrate and align the two functions. That strikes me as a huge opportunity to improve effectiveness and hence competitiveness which ultimately translates into improved market share/revenue/profit/stock price.
Note the image of the Indy car team on the cover of the CMO Council report. Per my prior post on this subject (Marketing is a Pit Crew), the pit crew (Marketing) and the driver (Sales) must work seamlessly as one unit in order to get around the track faster than the other teams. Its a simple concept but takes a lot of planning and hard work to accomplish (otherwise there would be ties every week in NASCAR). It might be heresy to suggest, but in order to win the race for revenue Sales and Marketing need to be structured, measured and incented as one team, not two. This idea scares both sides (each fearing subservience to the other) which is probably why so few have taken any steps to formally integrate the functions.
Execution is the key to go-to-market success
The biggest obstacle to go-to-market success (and lead generation ROI for that matter) is the lack of good execution. The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council’s latest study, “Driving the Bottom Line from the Front Line,” assessed the go-to-market pro…
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One way to incorporate both sales and marketing is to create a blueprint of your marketing strategy. This allows you to map out each step of the marketing and who is involved in what. When both sides see that they are working towards the same goal, it will help them collaborate better.
Interesting….
The blueprint is a good idea, and yes, both departments SHOULD work together. A no-brainer.
But what I’ve seen in every company I’ve dealt with is that Sales is focused on their quotas and their individual profit margins. They want Marketing to feed that acquisition stream but they never seem to see the “big picture” leaving hundreds if not thousands of lost leads scattered at their feet. Lead nuturing takes time. Time that they see no value in. And forget about retention!
It amazes me that even in “great” companies this disparity still exists when so many people out there ARE on the same page!
As that over-used saying goes, it’s not rocket science.
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So true! And so scary! In my humble opinion, Presidents, CEOs, GMs, et al need to go back to college and re-remember that sales is a facet of marketing!
Great article. The stats were shocking. Hope it is a wake up call to those that need it.
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