Sales and Marketing Alignment, Take 2
By Dave Stein
Thursday, January 25 2007
Thursday, January 25 2007
Published on AllBusiness.com
The first time I remember hearing the term "sales and marketing alignment" was in the mid 1990s. By then I had served as a vice president of sales for a time, then later as a VP of marketing. Alignment was the perfect word to describe what I did not have with my counterparts in both of those jobs.
One of the leading sales training companies was facilitating an alignment workshop with that title for a client, which they had given me permission to audit. Although the program content appeared solid, a turf war was in progress at the client's company. During the two-day workshop, the VP of marketing was combative and didn't exhibit any real interest.
That was far better than the VP of sales, who didn't show up at all on the second day. The workshop turned out to be a disaster—a metaphor for the relationship between the two executives running marketing and sales.
Now, a dozen years later, I received three e-mail invitations, all within the same week, to programs and workshops entitled "Sales and Marketing Alignment." One, based upon research by Sales & Marketing Management, suggests that it is, "The Next Competitive Advantage." What's going on?
What's going on is that many executives haven't figured out that sales and marketing alignment is about culture, philosophy and business orientation. Sales and marketing are very different functions that serve very different masters. In companies where there is alignment, marketing leaders understand that their team serves sales (and serve other masters as well.) I've seen laminated cards pinned inside cubicles of marketing staff people that said, "My job is to help our sales people sell more of our products." That's the idea.
Marketing leaders that have no respect for the sales function will not align with salespeople, no matter how many workshops they attend. (By the way, I strongly recommend that CEOs consider hiring marketers that have successfully sold in their careers.)
Sales understands that they serve the customer. Their job is to help people buy. To do that, they need ongoing support from marketing. And sales is accountable to marketing; sales has a responsibility to follow marketing's direction regarding product positioning and target markets, among other things. They must also provide feedback on what they observe in the field—industry trends and what the competition is doing.
Sales leaders who believe that "people who can't sell become marketers" will never find themselves working for an industry-leading company.
Sales and marketing alignment is much more than a good idea. It's absolutely required for a competitive advantage. But the alignment begins not with strategies, tasks and activities, but rather with the philosophies and values of their respective leaders.
One of the leading sales training companies was facilitating an alignment workshop with that title for a client, which they had given me permission to audit. Although the program content appeared solid, a turf war was in progress at the client's company. During the two-day workshop, the VP of marketing was combative and didn't exhibit any real interest.
That was far better than the VP of sales, who didn't show up at all on the second day. The workshop turned out to be a disaster—a metaphor for the relationship between the two executives running marketing and sales.
Now, a dozen years later, I received three e-mail invitations, all within the same week, to programs and workshops entitled "Sales and Marketing Alignment." One, based upon research by Sales & Marketing Management, suggests that it is, "The Next Competitive Advantage." What's going on?
What's going on is that many executives haven't figured out that sales and marketing alignment is about culture, philosophy and business orientation. Sales and marketing are very different functions that serve very different masters. In companies where there is alignment, marketing leaders understand that their team serves sales (and serve other masters as well.) I've seen laminated cards pinned inside cubicles of marketing staff people that said, "My job is to help our sales people sell more of our products." That's the idea.
Marketing leaders that have no respect for the sales function will not align with salespeople, no matter how many workshops they attend. (By the way, I strongly recommend that CEOs consider hiring marketers that have successfully sold in their careers.)
Sales understands that they serve the customer. Their job is to help people buy. To do that, they need ongoing support from marketing. And sales is accountable to marketing; sales has a responsibility to follow marketing's direction regarding product positioning and target markets, among other things. They must also provide feedback on what they observe in the field—industry trends and what the competition is doing.
Sales leaders who believe that "people who can't sell become marketers" will never find themselves working for an industry-leading company.
Sales and marketing alignment is much more than a good idea. It's absolutely required for a competitive advantage. But the alignment begins not with strategies, tasks and activities, but rather with the philosophies and values of their respective leaders.