Then, he goes on to point out how sales people don't live in the simple world that many marketers might assume. Just trying to manage sales messaging and collateral can be much more complex than might be assumed at first:"Come on, admit it.
"It’s what you think, isn’t it?
"If I had a dollar for every time I heard “our sales people lack the skills
or ability to (insert any of the following: cross-sell, sell higher, sell to
value, get ahead of the RFP)” I would be a very rich person. But is this really
the problem?"
"Assuming your company has 10 products that all can be sold by your sales force, lets try to determine how much information a sales person must process and manage on any given account they are pursing.So, what is the takeaway? Mr. Santucci suggests that marketing needs to better understand what the sales team is up against. Marketing should produce tools that will help simplify (rather than complicate) the sales process.
•10 products
•5 key value propositions for each product (50 different value propositions)
•Messages must be delivered to 5 different client stakeholders (250 different messages)
•Each value propositions has a set of 5 questions to uncover and they are different from stakeholder to stakeholder (the degree of difference is not important) – 1250 different messages
•Each value proposition has one competitive knockoff per competitor and you have 4 key competitors (50 different value propositions x 4 competitors = 200 +1250 = 1,450 different messages)
•Each product has a minimum of 5 different collateral pieces that exist about various aspects of the product (5 collateral pieces X 10 products = 50 different collateral pieces to locate, which equals 1,500 different information elements to manage)
•Each stakeholder has a set of 5 personal goals and 5 business goals that must be matched with their corresponding value propositions (5 personal goals + 5 business goals X 5 stakeholders = 50 unique goals + 1,500 information elements = 1,550 information elements.
"So, in this scenario, a salesperson is asked to manage over 1,500 different forms of information for each account they deal with."
Personally, I think that marketing and sales need tighter integration. Put some marketing people in the sales department for a couple of weeks. Let them attempt to use the tools and messages that sound so good in marketing's ivory towers. When they return, they will probably have a better appreciation for the needed materials. They might also want to return occasionally to sales as a source of inspiration.
And, don't let the sales team off the hook. Let them spend a little time in marketing. Some cross-pollination and discussion will do them good, too.
In the end, both teams have to work hand in hand. It's all about selling. And, if anyone in sales or marketing forgets that, big obstacles are looming on the horizon.
Happy selling, and let me know what you think. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801.838.9600 x5050, www.primary-intel.com)
1 comment:
The problem is not marketing vs. sales. The problem is that both are out of touch with their audiance!
I could sum it up by saying I've come to believe both groups are stupidly repeating past mistakes.
The greatest example that comes to mind is use of new communication tools. Let's look at the history:
Executive Assistants -- you know, the people who are paid in part to keep sales people away.
Fax -- when fax machines became commonplace sales and marketing began buying fax lists and sending. People got so fed up they had a law enacted to stop unwanted faxes.
Telephone -- sales and marketing people bought phone lists and started dialing for dollars. Again people got so fed up with unwanted calls that federal and many state "do not call" lists were enacted.
E-mail -- sales and marketing bought e-mail lists and started sending spam (ah-em UCE). People now spend literally hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to block the spam. A whole anti-spam industry was created. Federal and state laws, largely ineffective, were also created in an attempt to control spam.
Shall we go on? The clear lesson is potential customers DO NOT WANT to have their time wasted with some sort of bulk solicitation. Invading the communication medium people rely on to get work done is more likely to cause anger than acceptance.
Getting in-touch with the target audiance means reaching out to them in ways that are viewed as positive. Good marketing is key here -- positioning the company message in places where executives will see and remember when a need arises.
For sales, developing "warm call" lists and friendly introductions is key. Taking a bit of time to actually know what the company you are calling does. Working the network, not working the cold lists. Social media provides several good new avenues -- but only if it is not abused as an "easy way to solicit thousands of people who could care less about me" like every other avenue has been abused. Think you can just connect with everybody on LinkedIn who has management in their title? Think again! I quickly learned not to accept any invitations from people who have "sales" in their title unless I actually know the person.
Time to get smart -- becuse right now the average target decision maker like myself thinks Sales people are rather useless; and marketing people running some sort of "campain" are basically evil.
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