Better Sales and Marketing Integration
Poor sales and marketing integration is so common that it risks cliché. I believe the answer to better integration is by taking a more strategic approach to lead generation.
Last night, I stumbled upon Jeremy Porter's notes and observations from DMA's B-to-B Conference session entitled, "Sales and Marketing Integration: How To Make It Happen and Why You Can't Afford Not To." I've paraphrased a few of his thoughts below:
Sales and Marketing need to communicate then collaborate - not just executives but the entire team. Email is worst way to do it. In person or via phone is best.
Marketing must to help the sales team develop better value propositions.
Sales and Marketing must jointly develop a universal lead definition to qualify all leads regardless of source.
Leads should never die as they represent future relationships. Marketing must take control of nurturing leads.
Sales and Marketing must conduct regular sales pipeline review meetings for better integration, accountability and metrics.
Jeremy Porter's Blog: B-TO-B CONFERENCE DAY ONE - SALES & MARKETING INTEGRATION.
September 17, 2005 | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/3203201
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Better Sales and Marketing Integration:
» Marketing and Sales, Working Together from Vasey on Marketing
So many organisations miss out on the great things that come out of sales and marketing working together. hey are two sides of the same coin. [Read More]
Tracked on Sep 19, 2005 2:40:39 PM
Comments
This blog is right up our alley. We had an event for the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association (AiMA) entitled " Bridging the Marketing and Sales Gap - Working Together to Win" in January moderated by Kelly Gay (http://www.KnowledgeStorm.com, CEO) and paneled by John Neeson (http://SiriusDecisions.com, Co-Founder), Rory Holland (http://www.hollandinteractive.com, President), and Coleen Crafton (http://www.mapics.com/, Marketing Director).
I originally wanted to title the event "Come watch sales and marketing dook it out", but we chose to take the high road. During the event the panelists highlighted that coming up with common definitions of what is "quality" in a lead, and what is not is crucial for sales and marketing to respect and work well together. Also, sales must show marketing that they are working the leads hard, and marketing must show sales that they are nurturing leads that are not yet ready to buy. These steps are key to ensuring that your whole sales and marketing organizations are moving towards the same goals of more sales for the entire organization. Thanks - Joe Koufman
Posted by: Joe Koufman | Sep 18, 2005 9:10:17 AM
This is going to sound like an ancient gripe.
I get into countless situations (especially in larger companies) where the marketing organization is insulated from sales. It's like the artists don't hang with the jocks.
So disappointing. I urge the marketing folks to *ask* the sales people what the customers 1) need, 2) care about, 3) complain about, 4) respond to emotionally.
Sadly this rarely happens. The answers are there, but the effort is not.
Posted by: Phil Dunn | Sep 21, 2005 1:10:17 AM
