Getting marketing and Sales to work well together will probably be a challenge forever but some organizations are making serious progress at overcoming this traditional roadblock.\u00a0 The article in the link shown below offers three good suggestions on how to overcome this seemingly endless roadblock.\u00a0 While I like the suggestions offered in the article, I feel there are three other suggestions that ought to be the central part of any initiative to get marketing and sales aligned.\u00a0 Here is the article link:\u00a0 http:\/\/bit.ly\/X99gNz\u00a0 Please note this is a lengthy article but worth the read.<\/p>\n
The article by Hubspot puts forth that there are three key hurdles Marketing and Sales must overcome if they are going to effectively work together.\u00a0 These three hurdles are:<\/p>\n
–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sales people are greedy and simpleminded<\/p>\n
–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marketing folks are academics and intolerant<\/p>\n
–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The two organizations sit apart and rarely, if ever, get together<\/p>\n
–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sales and Marketing have objectives, but these are often not connected in any way<\/p>\n
The article goes on to discuss the dangers of not addressing these three hurdles and how to resolve them.\u00a0 Here is a short summary of the authors\u2019 recommendations.<\/p>\n
For the misconception hurdle, they provide a number of ideas that fundamentally suggest that the organizations should structure more activities together \u2013 hold joint meetings, have members from each group sit with the others, etc.<\/p>\n
For the misalignment hurdle, they suggest shifting to a persona-based team structure \u2013 build teams that are made up of Sales and Marketing, have these teams sit together within the office structure.<\/p>\n
For the misleading hurdle, they suggest setting up service-level agreements (SLAs) to track the appropriate metrics.<\/p>\n
While I found a lot of good ideas in the article, I believe it is missing some key areas of focus.\u00a0 A close friend of mine, who has been a CMO and has experience with leading both Sales and Marketing teams, has three of his own specific recommendations for getting the most out of your teams.\u00a0 His three areas are:\u00a0 clear role definition, structured communications, and aligned metrics.\u00a0 Let\u2019s look at each of these areas of focus.<\/p>\n
–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Define the roles clearly and make sure the other organization understands their role as well as yours<\/p>\n
–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Get aligned on common<\/span> goals<\/span><\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 More sharing of data and information with each other<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Recognize that Sales is about personal relationships and Marketing is about company relationships<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Agree on goals that are relevant<\/span> to both organizations \u2013 share of wallet vs. share of market<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Try to link the metrics.\u00a0 For example:\u00a0 Awareness \u00f0 Leads \u00f0 Access \u00f0 Conversion \u00f0 Repeat Orders \u00f0 Share of Category within Customer \u00f0 Market Share \u00f0 Increased Revenue \u00f0 Increased Profit \u00f0 Performance Incentives<\/p>\n While I feel that the HubSpot article offers good suggestions, I feel that you need to first establish a higher level of alignment through the three strategies mentioned above.<\/p>\n I welcome your thoughts and feedback.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Getting marketing and Sales to work well together will probably be a challenge forever but some organizations are making serious progress at overcoming this traditional roadblock.\u00a0 The article in the link shown below offers three good suggestions on how to … Continue reading \n