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Rick Roberge

Marketing vs. Selling

This entry was posted on 7/16/2006 5:29 AM and is filed under uncategorized.

This post is under construction. I expect that once done, it will be long. I hope that it will be interesting. Let me share the "seed".

I've known marketers that couldn't sell their way out of a paper bag. I've known salespeople that think marketing is all about advertising and supporting the sales effort. (I've also know salespeople that couldn't sell their way out of a paper bag, but that's another post!) So, I intend to dilineate the duties and responsibilities of each as well as suggest the "ideal" relationship. I expect to do some research and as part of that research, I'm suggesting that you comment with any opinions that you may have. Your comments will not only be posted, but will be incorporated into the final post.

Thank you for reading. Thank you, in advance, for waiting. Now, please comment. Incidentally, if you like the idea of planting the "seed" like this, gathering comments, and posting the final later, vote that you liked this post. If not, vote that you disliked this post.

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7/17/2006 5:26 PM Doug wrote:
I've sat in a room with the executive team questioning marketing and sales to see what the problem is with the sales funnel.

Marketing points across the table and says "we gave them lots of leads and good collateral, but they weren't able to close the deal."

Sales points back and says, "the leads were junk and the collateral was worse."

Unfortunately, they are typically both right. I think the biggest problem is that both groups tend to throw things over the fence and not work together well to define what they each need to make not just themselves, but the other group successful.

Marketing needs feedback from sales. They need to be told what type of collateral to develop, what makes a good lead, and what different types of information sales needs for different phases of the sales cycle. If sales doesn't see it as there job to help marketing, they will always get junk.

Sales needs marketing to get engaged in the process. Don't just develop what you think is the client needs, go out and talk to customers and prospects and see what makes sense. Also, don't forget that the sales people sometimes need information that the prospect doesn't! If marketing gets involved in the sales process, walks through it with some sales people, they will realize that a large part of the sales process isn't just "telling" the prospect about the product. The sales person needs information about target industries, who the real buyers are, what their titles are, how to find them, and target them. The sales person needs to know what questions to ask, what are the prospects biggest pain points, and how do we help them with their problems. That's not typically available in a marketing "glossy."

So, to sum up. Sales needs to give feedback to marketing, really help them understand what is useful and why. Marketing needs to get engaged in the process. Sit side-by-side with sales for a while and go through the process. Add to that some tools to allow this conversation to happen online 24x7x365 no matter where the sales or marketing people are and you can solve the problem.

That's my take.

Doug
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