The "Good" – forming a true partnership between Sales and Marketing where both parties have skin in the game.
Continuing
from my last post, here are some of actions I’ve used to bridge the gap between
sales and marketing.
When
you join a new organization spend the first 2-3 weeks out in the field with as
many account executives and customers as possible before doing anything
else!!! You want to get real customer
input before being biased by headquarters thinking.
- For both reps and customers ask about their business
challenges, what they value in a company/vendor, how the company compares to
competitors, etc. - Ask the reps what marketing support they really
need. If they had limited money and
could only pick one thing what would it be (leads vs. awareness)? Have them define their ideal lead … i.e.
what makes an A lead different from a B lead? Get tons of input on this and then publish the lead-scoring criteria to
all reps for comments. This is
essential before you start shooting leads to the field! (I’ll write lots more posts on this later)
You must also spend a couple of days double-jacking with
Inside Sales reps, CRMs and Customer Service reps as they complete the picture
of the customer experience. Ask them
the same questions and you’ll likely get different answers from the field reps.
Work
closely with the Regional Sales Directors to get their honest assessment on
marketing and what needs to be improved. Attend their regular staff meetings to keep them up-to-date on changes
you’ve made and solicit their feedback. Once a rapport is established you gain valuable real-time feedback on
plans and tactics.
Create
a formal Advisory Council with representation from each region and the CRM
group but try to keep it manageable in size … about 6 members. As mentioned in the last post, make sure to
have senior management establish the council as recognition/reward for top
performers or it will fail.
- Fly the council into headquarters for a full-day strategy
and brainstorming session on the product mix, segment priorities, competitive
threats, value-proposition, positioning, best marketing tactics, etc. (do this
twice a year at a minimum). - Then include the council as formal reviewers as you progress
through the marketing plan development. Use a Wiki or online team-room where council members can post their
comments/plan edits for all to see and modify. - Once you’ve finalized the plan, have several of the members
present it to the rest of the field via web conference. Then it becomes everyone’s plan not just
Marketing’s. - Once in execution mode, have each council member take
ownership for reviewing / improving one specific tactic. For example, one rep can review/edit the
customer presentation, while another can review/edit the direct marketing
materials. Keep it focused on one
tactic since they don’t have much time and need to stay focused on sales not
marketing. - Systematically communicate the recommendations of the
council to the broader sales force (a bi-weekly summary email works well) as
this recognizes sales contributions and helps with buy-in.
Obviously this is just a cursory overview of a very involved
process, but in my experience, it is absolutely worth the investment. When I joined Pfizer I followed a process
similar to this that enabled me to develop a true partnership with Sales and
marketing plans/actions that really hit the target. In contrast, when I started at another company, marketing worked
in an ivory tower and you can guess how that impacted relationships with sales
and the efficacy of marketing plans.