By: Dianne Kim

Dianne Kim — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 20:51:31 +0000

Richard, you bring up an excellent point about sales and marketing alignment. All too often, there is a huge discrepancy between marketing’s activities and sales objectives due to a lack of communication and collaboration in the earlier planning stages and in many cases, completely different metrics and goals. By the time marketing throws something “over the wall” it’s irrelevant and too little too late. In our 2012 Sales Enablement Survey, survey participants said only 52% of content/tools that their organization produces for sales enablement is actually used by sales. This means that marketing organizations are not doing a good job of focusing their efforts on what sales actually needs to succeed. As the voice of the customer, marketing is in a unique position to provide an outside-in perspective. Especially in today’s era of marketing automation, data analytics and the ever-growing importance of social media (it’s here to stay!), marketing will be expected to bring strategic insight to the table. However, marketing will not be seen as a strategic partner until it can prove itself as a credible and valuable contributor to the Sales organization, as well as demonstrate its contribution to the business as a whole.

By: Richard Hatheway

Richard Hatheway — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 16:44:04 +0000

This article identifies one of the main challenges that professional marketers must deal with on a regular basis – not having a seat at the table. Too often, marketing is considered nothing more than a source of funds (or a “wallet”) to pay for sales activities (tactical), but is not consulted on how they can provide anything of strategic value to the organization. In addition, many marketing organizations often reinforce this perception by effectively developing campaigns, programs, activities, etc. in a vacuum, without seeking input, feedback or buy-in from sales, so that when they do roll something out, it is not accepted by sales, it does not hit the sweet spot, it is not what sales is currently focused on, etc. Because of this, they are not engaged/included at the beginning. By adopting techniques like the ones listed above, marketing can show that they are able to provide relevant information that will help, rather than hinder, the company and over time will become an asset to the company and will earn a seat at the table.

Comments on: Featured Research: Marketing Needs to Be the Change It Wants to See

By: Dianne Kim

By: Richard Hatheway