bridging the gap between sales and marketing

Bridging The Gap Between Sales and Marketing

Speakers:

Greg AnyonRob Fearn

Peter McPartlandIan Roe

Introduction

Rob Fearn

Chair, CIM Merseyside

Bridging The Gap Between Sales and MarketingCIM Merseyside and Cheshire

Cheshire

“Bl**@y! sales”CIM Member

“Simplifying Key Marketing Messages” Event4th May 2006

“A WAR!”Kotler, Rackham and Krishnaswamy

“Bl**@y! marketing”CIM Member

“Simplifying Key Marketing Messages” Event4th May 2006


Cheshire

A “war” that seriously hurts performance

1 Day

a week


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So who is prepared to put the “gun” down first?


Cheshire

Agenda

1. Introduction

2. Understanding the sales process

3. The current relationship between sales and marketing

4. Creating a new partnership between sales and marketing

5. What we can do to check and change our behaviour

Understanding the sales process

Greg Anyon

CIM Course Director


Cheshire

Overview

• Protect and grow existing business• Identify and win new business


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The physical process

• Identify suspects• Research• Qualify to prospect status

• Identify key contacts & DMU’s• Create contact strategy and

messages• Initiate contact

• Discover needs• Qualify needs/ create interest• Extract and handle objections• Present proposition• Close for next stage• Negotiate, close and rollout

solution

• Up-sell and cross-sell• Defend


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Along the way

• Networking• Recommends• Respond to leads• Database suspects and prospects• Territory and time management• Update portfolio knowledge• Create/ utilise promotional campaigns• Relationship development

The current relationship between sales and marketing

Rob Fearn

Chair, CIM Merseyside


Cheshire

A broken process


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Two “different worlds” …

• Sales campaigns • Relationship development• Identifying needs• Contract development• Selling• Reporting and forecasting• Fire fighting• Contract management• Debt management

• Market research• Product development• Message development• Sales collateral• Marketing campaigns• Internet/intranet• Internal/external comms• Press and PR• Trade fairs and events• Corporate hospitality


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… that just need reconnecting and aligning

Advocacy

Loyalty

Hand-over to the business

Purchase

Purchase intention

Hand-over to sales

Brand preference

Brand consideration

Brand awareness

Customer awareness

Marketing

Sales

The wholebusiness

Creating a new partnership between sales and marketing

Peter McPartland

CIM Ambassador, SME


Cheshire

The current split between Sales & Marketing

Research

Plan

Target

Introduce

Engage

Expose

Propose

Close

OPPORTUNITY

REALISATION

Campaign

Leads

Pipeline

Forecast

Order Book

FOCUS ACTIVITY DELIVERABLEFUNCTION

MARKETING

SALES


Cheshire

Sales – a Marketing function!

• Marketing and Sales are not integrated as a process.• Marketing has little exposure to customers and prospects.• Marketing has little desire to influence performance of

Sales people• Marketing is seen as a ‘Cost Centre’.


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Why do we fail in the Sale?

Listen

Ask the right questions

Understand the client’s buying cycle and processes

Understand the history of the relationship

Position themselves against competition

Know their own range

Respond with a proposal

67%

52%

38%

37%

37%

30%

17%

Salesforce: July 2006


Cheshire

Why do we fail in the Sale?

Listen

Ask the right questions

Understand the client’s buying cycle and processes

Understand the history of the relationship

Position themselves against competition

Know their own range

Respond with a proposal

5

67%

52%

38%

37%

37%

30%

17%

Salesforce: July 2006


Cheshire

Marketing needs to take responsibility for business development

Research

Plan

Target

Introduce

Engage

Expose

Propose

Close

OPPORTUNITY

REALISATION

Campaign

Leads

Pipeline

Forecast

Order Book


BUSINESSDEVELOPMENT


Cheshire

Taking responsibility

• Communication of Key Messages• Making it Easier to Buy• Enhancing the Customer’s Experience


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1. Communicating key messages

• Only 14% of sales people can clearly “articulate”:

– What their organisation does?

– Why their organisation is unique?

– Why a buyer should do business with them?


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Challenging ourselves and the business

• “The materials many sales people are given are poorly developed and lacking in clarity”

Salesforce: June 2005

WHY

• This isn’t on our agenda.• We don’t know it either.

14%


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Preferred communication styles

AuthoritariansKey Points

AnalysersFacts Logically Presented

VisionariesThemes

SupportersContribute and Personalise

Visual People Imagery and Colours

Auditory People Speech

Kinaesthetic People Emotions


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2. Making it easier to buy

• Pre sales resource can underpin every sale.– Makes the cost of sale more expensive.– Difficult to maintain momentum.– Risk damaging credibility.


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Business Development

Research

Plan

Target

Introduce

Engage

Expose

Propose

Close

OPPORTUNITY

REALISATION

Campaign

Leads

Pipeline

Forecast

Order Book


BUSINESSDEVELOPMENT


Cheshire

Productisation

• Create standard offerings.• Influence the qualification process.• Move from brochure production to proposal production.• Treat the Sales Team as a Customer when developing

Tools.


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3. Enhancing the customer’s experience

• How we engage can be a differentiator.• Interrogate the whole Business Development process.

– Test / Measure / Learn

• Familiarise the ‘whole business’ with the process.– Encourage enquiries from every angle


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Taking responsibility – challenging the business

• Communication of key messages– Understand the principles of effective “personal” communication– Develop skills of those interfacing with customers

• Making it easier to buy– Provide tools for responding to Customer’s throughout the

process– Use as a platform for continuous communication.

• Enhancing the customer’s experience– Make it easy for the customer to buy

What we can do to check and change our behaviour

Ian Roe

CIM Ambassador, Cheshire


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Where do we go from here?

• What is our current situation?• How can we align sales and marketing?• How can we stop sales and marketing conflicting?


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Do something different


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Integrate sales and marketing processes• Our sales figures are usually close to the

sales forecast.• If things go wrong, or results are

disappointing, neither function points fingers or blames the other.

• Marketing people often meet with key customers during the sales process.

• Marketing solicits participation from Sales in drafting the marketing plan.

• Our salespeople believe the collateral supplied by Marketing is a valuable tool to help them get more sales.

• The sales force willingly cooperates in supplying feedback requested by Marketing.

• …………………………


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“To change, or not to change”

Un-Defined Defined Aligned

Don’t change if… • Company is small.• Good informal relationships.• Marketing is still a sales support

function.

• Products and services are cut and dried.

• Traditional marketing and sales roles work

• No clear and compelling reason to change.

• No Culture of shared responsibility.

• Sales and Marketing report separately.

• Sales cycle is short.

Tighten the relationship

between Sales and Marketing if…

• Conflicts are evident between the two functions.

• There’s duplication of effort between the functions

• The functions compete for resources or funding

• Even with careful definition of roles, there’s still duplication

• The market is commoditized and makes a traditional sales force costly.

• Products are developed, prototyped, or extensively customized during the sales process.

• Product life cycles are shortening and technology turnover is accelerating.

• A common process or business funnel can be created for managing and measuring revenue-generating activities.

move to Defined move to Aligned move to Integrated


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Integration checklistIntegrate activities Integrate processes and

systemsEnable the culture Integrate organisational

structures

• Involve Sales and Marketing in product planning and in setting sales targets.

• Involve Sales and Marketing in generating value Propositions

• Involve Sales and Marketing assessing customer needs.

• Involve Sales and Marketing signing off on advertising materials.

• Involve Sales and Marketing analyzing the top opportunities by segment.

• Implement systems to track and manage joint activities.

• Utilise and regularly update shared databases.

• Establish common metrics for evaluating the overall success of Sales and Marketing

• Create reward systems to celebrate successful collaboration between Sales and Marketing

• Meet regularly to review and improve relations.

• Require Sales and Marketing heads to attend each other’s reviews with the CEO.

• Emphasize shared responsibility for results

• Emphasize metrics.• Tie rewards to results.• Enforce divisions’

conformity to systems and processes.

• Split Marketing into upstream and downstream teams.

• Hire a chief revenue officer.


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Enough theory – do something practical

• Recognise and accept there may be a problem• Develop an understanding of your sales process• Assess current situation• Identify sales and marketing needs• Develop and agree shared sales and marketing objectives• Define and utilise respective strengths• Build trust


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Enough theory – do something practical

• Build joint sales and marketing plans for growth• Link marketing activities to the sales cycle/process• Develop better insight through talking to real customers• Share and review market analysis, key issues, future

developments.• Differentiate through innovation• Facilitate new/different customer dialogs• Improved marketing messages• Develop sales force market feedback


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Summary – Marketing and Sales …

• Are two parts of the same process that need to be reconnected

• Need to understand what each can do and how best we can support each other

• Need to be better integrated with common, shared goals• Need to align ourselves better and focus more of our

energies on producing joint deliverables that support the selling process

• Need to take greater responsibility and more active involvement in the business planning process and the whole business development activities


Cheshire

Sources

• CIM North West web-site

“Ending the war between Sales & Marketing”Philip Kotler, Neil Rackham and Suj Krishnaswamy

http://www.cim-nw.org.uk/handouts.php

• Sales Force Magazine

http://www.cim-nw.org.uk/handouts.php

Thank you

bridging the gap between sales and marketing

Business

marketing function

sales team

business development

marketing speakers

new business

pre sales resource

existing business

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