How Do You Bridge the Divide Between Sales and Marketing?

How Do You Bridge the Divide Between Sales and Marketing?:

Recently, I joined global corporation marketing leaders Tom Insprucker, Vice President of Marketing Worldwide of Schneider Electric and Tanya Earley, Director, Channel & Field Marketing of USG, as panelists at the Business Network Chicago’s Senior Executives Sales Roundtable to discuss best practices for aligning sales and marketing. I was so enamored by the discussion from the group and my co-panelists, that I decided to share my impressions from the event.

1. Staying out of Our Silos Tom and Tanya work in global corporations where marketing and sales are traditionally very separate functions. They conveyed the importance of combining marketing and sales efforts to present a unified front from their organizations. I offered the marketing agency perspective that we often work as a liaison between our client and their customers. We all agreed that selling is the ultimate outcome we’re all hoping for when we use marketing as the tool we use for outreach in our programs.

2. Targeted Leads, Right Client Fit, Higher Profits Tom encourages his marketing team to seek opportunities that are laser focused, rather than chasing every possible lead. He said the key is to really understand from all the things they sell, what brings them the highest profit margin. Then marketing resources are strategically aligned to meet their revenue goals for the right type of client. With this approach, they’ve been able to boost both their top and bottom line revenue.

3. Marketing Joins Sales in the Field Tanya’s marketing team takes a brilliant approach. Marketing will actually join Sales on their calls with the client from the perspective of listening. So Marketing is also doing fieldwork side by side with the sales team; they’re part of the process. They’re not there to discuss pricing or to even sell, but to really learn what messaging is resonating. On the occasion when they’ve lost an account, Tanya again encourages her team to schedule an appointment with the former client to genuinely learn what occurred during the relationship. They’ve even salvaged a few relationships using this approach.

4. Secret Shoppers I talked about the importance of going beyond what companies and brands tell us by talking directly with their customers. I shared how Desert Rose Design takes on the role of “Secret Shoppers” to interview prospects and verify that what the company says is meaningful and what their pain points are, their customers are actually saying those same things. And that once we’ve gotten this feedback, we’re able to serve up marketing that’s relevant to their prospects and customers.

5. Online Hub for Real-Time Collaboration Tom and I also talked about a big needle mover for both of us – creating a homegrown, custom Client Project Management portal. Like us, Tom has also seen the benefit of having a portal facilitate real-time collaboration of project details and best practices in a Communication Hub for all teams to see. What breakthrough techniques have you used or seen where Marketing has added value to Sales? We really want to hear from you!