Canadian Marketing Blog

Increasing Marketing’s Impact on Sales Success

What’s wrong with marketing and sales at most companies?

Marketing and sales departments are notorious for not getting along. A lot of talent and money is invested in two groups that should have the same end goal – selling more stuff – but they often act like each other is the enemy. This disconnect, however, has reached a day of reckoning. Executive management is demanding that sales forces become more effective—and that marketing departments help get them there. No more blame game… no more finger pointing. The visionary marketing and sales executives believe better marketing and sales alignment actually represents the next big competitive advantage in markets where it’s hard to distinguish one competitor’s offering from another.

What’s at risk if companies don’t get their marketing and sales teams aligned?

Our company, CustomerCentric believes that there are four strategic areas at risk or “at opportunity” for companies willing to make the effort:

1. Avoiding parity in value propositions. The top concern among both sales and marketing people is that they will not be able to differentiate their company from same competition. Proper alignment around the customer buying process and the conversations one needs to have in order to set them apart in the marketplace is how companies will avoid parity and create a compelling difference. It’s not going to happen at the 30,000-foot-level with their advertising, PR, trade shows or campaigns. It’s going to happen at the 3.5-foot-level when sales are face-to-face with a decision maker.

2. Elevating from products to solutions. Everyone wants to move their companies from selling products or services to selling solutions. But, just saying it doesn’t make it so. Just changing words in our brochures doesn’t magically transform yesterday’s product into a solution. It requires a connected and concerted effort between marketing and sales to identify customers’ biggest problems, needs and goals and then align the company’s assets to respond to each of these opportunities, in order to create a true customer-relevant (not company-relevant) solution.

3. Training and equipping more effective sales people. Only 10% of any sales force can be considered “naturals” when it comes to facilitating customers through a solution development and value creation process – where the customer truly senses that a company can better solve their problems versus the competition. The other 90% are in competitive bake-offs where products are pitched against each other and price is the only mediator. Enabling sales people to be more effective in their customer conversations, presentations and communications is what will separate great brands from commoditized products pushers.

4. Generating meaningful Marketing ROI. The only ROI that counts is connected to revenue and profitability. The main engine for generating this is the sales channel. Yet, most of the marketing effort aimed at supporting the sales force goes to limited use. Some surveys say upwards of 90% of what marketing creates goes unused in the field. So, when management questions marketing’s impact on revenue-generating activities, the budget looks big in comparison to the documented impact. Marketers that can show greater utility and adoption of their messaging and tools, deeper into the sales cycle, will be the ones that can show greater impact on top and bottom line results.

Isn’t the biggest complaint that marketing never generates enough leads?

Everyone seems to think if marketing just gives sales people more “leads” then they will improve the marketing-sales disconnect. While generating enough sales opportunities is still a concern, several hundred sales people told us in a recent survey that their biggest concern related to the disconnect is “the usefulness of marketing messages, training and tools.” As one salesperson told us, “It’s not about where I show up…it’s about what I say when I get there.” Too often leads tell us who’s already in the market for something we’ve got to sell. By that time it’s really too late to have the desired impact on a sales cycle.

Sales people need to be speaking with prospects and customers well before that decision is made. In fact, they need to be equipped to be a part of the up-front strategic decision-making dialogue where opportunities are created based on business needs. This dialogue is going on at every one of their seller’s potential prospects, the question is: Are their sales people part of these conversations or are they waiting for leads? When marketing and sales are getting the message creation and delivery piece right, they are in a position to lead sales cycles versus wait for so-called sales leads.

Why are marketers not more aggressive in the area of sales messaging and tools?

Unfortunately, too many marketing strategists, schools and other experts keep telling marketers that sales support isn’t a strategic issue. It’s relegated to a tactical blip on the product launch checklist. Sellers spend lots of money on creating tools, but they don’t spend the time necessary to see if they are right… and whether they really work. We recently ran across a chart in a marketer’s office from a well-known product marketing training company and it showed sales support on the far right-hand-side as the most “tactical” part of the marketer’s job. This only serves to perpetuate the hit-or-miss approach too many marketers take toward their sales support responsibility.

Yet, no matter how you look at its customers, especially, B2B companies rely on sales people to help them sift through all of the hype, claims and indistinguishable marketing driven branding and value propositions. Sales people, and what comes out of their mouths, need to be viewed as the most strategic asset marketers have at their disposal when it comes to building a brand and selling more product or services.

What’s wrong with most companies’ value propositions?

Just that—they are company value propositions based on who the company is and what they have to sell. One big problem with this approach is that the seller often forgets about the customer and their most pressing business needs. Seller’s value propositions end up as nothing more than glorified feature-function-benefit statements. A true determination of value can only be made by the customer. So, if the seller neglects to put their messages into the customers’ context – in a way that the customer will see the seller helping them accomplish something – the seller is not equipping their sales people with true value messaging.

Value messaging needs to start with the customer target, their most pressing business objectives and relevant challenges and then align the seller’s capabilities that respond to those challenges and help meet the objectives. At this “intersection,” between the customer decision-maker, what they want to accomplish, and the seller’s aligned assets is the opportunity to create meaningful value messaging. We prefer to call this “value creation” versus “value proposition.”

Can’t this problem be fixed with good sales training?

The problem occurs when the seller’s sales skills training, such as solutions selling-type training sessions, are completely disconnected from our product training. It’s like building a racecar, but not putting the right gas in the tank. The seller wants salespeople to engage in more consultative conversations, but thesSeller isn’t equipping them with the necessary messaging and sales tools. The seller expects them to conduct customer-centric discovery sessions to discover what the customer wants to accomplish, but they train them on everything they need to know about their product and what it does. Now, that’s a disconnect.

Companies looking for a competitive advantage and a differentiated market presence need to re-orient their product messaging and align it with the consultative sales training approach – which starts with the customer and their business needs, not your product and its features. Transforming from a company and product-centric training approach to a customer-relevant training approach – in terms of both content and skills will elevate your sales-customer conversations and dramatically differentiate you from the competition.

If you would like to explore these topics further and learn how to create your own customized tools, consider attending the upcoming CMA roundtable “Aligning Marketing with Sales: Turning theory into reality” in Toronto Sept 4th.

In selling, effective questioning is a critical skill. There are several reasons. First, our recent research shows that there is a direct correlation between the success of a sales call and the type of questions that salespeople use. On average, failed sales calls include 86% more close-ended questions than open-ended questions. Close ended questions don't draw out the real need of the customer.

Second, questions help customers make their first key buying decision, which is whether to buy you, the salesperson or you, the marketing person. Questions build rapport and demonstrate your interest in the customer. They uncover information about the customer's needs, who to call on, the decision-making time-frame, your competition and how the customer will make a decision. When you ask the "best" questions, customers will view you as a consultant with their best interests in mind.

Third, questions help you manage the sales call. You can control the conversation and differentiate yourself from competitors by being the best listener.

But merely asking questions isn't enough. You need to ask "The Best Questions." For example, asking questions that draw out needs for your product's strengths can position you as the best or only solution for the customer's needs.

In marketing, effective questioning is also critical.

Many marketing people tend to focus on presenting their solution to a perceived need . . . but miss the mark completely. As in sales, we must ask ourselves: Who is the customer? What are the needs? When do they need it? Where does it hurt? Why do they need it? How can my solution help? These open-ended questions need to be answered by the customer before any marketing or sales takes place.

You want sales and marketing to get on the same page and work as one? Focus on the customer. Use the best open-ended questions, find the best answers and present your solution(s) that meets those needs. And both sales and marketing people must deliver the same message.