How many times have you heard this dialogue or have experienced it yourself?
Sales Manager: "Give me good leads. The leads which you gave are not good. How can my team sell?"
Marketing Manager: "You have got good leads. Your guys are not able to close those!"
Well, gone are the days when companies and managers could afford to be in the middle of such discussions. In today's active online world, it is no more lead generation, handover and closure with separate stakeholders from marketing and sales for each task. Today, buyers rely more on online reputation, social media and sites than just what the sales people tell them.
Smart organizations thrive on creating a culture where the marketing and sales people work together hand in hand to facilitate faster closure. It's no more about only "leads". Free content is what drives the action. Marketing and sales need to work together in creating valid content for each step in the sales process and facilitate easier evaluation of the offerings throughout the sales cycle.
In fact, in case of complex sales, which involve multiple decision makers and have long sales cycles, social media can play a very important role. A well managed social reputation can in fact shorten the sales cycle. It can help the buyers in making more informed decisions and can also help sales people in bringing people into the top of the sales funnel.
What is your sales and marketing strategy?
Hi
ReplyDeleteI agree with all the above. This is fine for a particualr vertical and specific industry.In fact this best suits small or mid-size companies with small or mid-size value proposition sales.
Large Org which involves products/services of high worth have to focus on various other strategies than just leads and more specificaly online leads.
Marketing as a funtion in large org has different role vis-a-vis in small org(since sales and mktng tend to overlap).
Sales in large org may specifically be in starting Pre-Sales and Mktng is more on Brand building, Coprporate Communication etc.
Yes they should co-exist but being mutually exclusive/dis-joint is also fine based on nature of industry.
For eg in a Automotive sector Sales and Mktng have differnt meaning and objective, in a HealthCare sector it has differnt need of co-xistence.
I feel it is interesting "Thought provoking" article to trigger the grey cells to address the GRAY areas in Sales and Mktng and the associated myths and illusions.
@Manoj: I absolutely agree with you that the roles of marketing and sales differ based on the nature of the organization and the goals each of the roles want to achieve. And a symbiotic relationship can always help organizations in achieving its goals.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, here is an amazing clip of an interview of Philip Kotler on this same topic which reinforces this fact. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc9YBrHWMTY