By Tom Jacobs
Oct. 27, 2011
Marketing can optimally impact an organization when Sales and Marketing are aligned and collaborating. Often companies diminish their own marketing investments by leaving Sales out of the loop and unable to continue the dialogue that Marketing has started.
With so many more communication channels available today, companies have ample opportunities to send their messages to audiences and start the sales engagement and dialogue. Once the audience is nodding along with you, the sale should easily follow. But sometimes that’s where things fall apart. Organizations spend time crafting and honing the marketing message, ensuring it can be fit into the appropriate channels to be heard and received at the right place and time. However, they don’t account for the Sales team being able to articulate that message or being focused on the in-market activities at the time.
Prepare The Front Lines
You may have witnessed or experienced a disconnect between marketing campaign communications and the day-to-day exchanges from Sales with the target audience. When the front lines articulate a variation of the message, or, in some cases, a different message entirely, it undermines the credibility of the marketing communication, the brand and the organization. For most companies, the vehicle that delivers the greatest frequency is usually not print or online advertising, but customer-sales interactions.
Lately, we have seen best-in-class organizations recognize that Sales is a critical secondary audience in any marketing initiative. These businesses see value in the creation of not only external-facing sales materials but also internal tools to ensure the success of their campaigns. Marketing can set them up, but Sales can’t knock them down unless they can complement and reinforce the marketing message. Well-informed and well-armed Sales teams can successfully take the company in the right direction. Forward.
Provide Good Resources and Ensure Follow Through
While conducting marketing planning, companies need to think through all of the subsequent sales steps that take place to close the deal. We have observed many situations where the final sales process is more of an afterthought vs. an underlying framework to the campaign itself.