Changing the Relationship Between Sales & Marketing

Changes in consumer behavior have impacted both sales and marketing in positive and negative ways. This podcast explores how sales and marketing must adapt to meet the demands of this new consumer behavior and gain a new appreciation for each department s role in the organization.

• Consumers interact with sales much later in buyer s journey as one of the last touch points.
• 4 forces have changed this relationship:
  • Internet provides greater access of information to buyer to do own research. Learn about marketing s Zero and First Moments of Truth.
  • Globalization and virtualization levels the playing field between industries. Example: 99Designs impact on graphic designers.
  • Expectation of personalized service changes how we interact with products.
    • Consumer tolerance for irrelevant messages is dropping and is a brand turn-off.
  • On-demand culture has lack of patience for back-and-forth of sales
• Consumers used to reach out in Think state, but now waiting until Do state.
  • Study: Buyers do not contact suppliers directly until 57% of purchase process is complete.
  • Consumer feels in driver s seat when reaching out to sales and is armed with information and possibly talking to other vendors.

• Sales
  • Sales being present earlier in the buyer s journey will help influence consumer opinion
  • Adding value beyond the product or service occurs in multiple sales approaches: consultive selling, SPIN selling and becoming a trusted advisor
  • Personal experience shows sales teams understand these concepts but are not applying them
    • Sales losing the opportunity to be an influence earlier in the buyer process
    • Puts greater demand and pressure on marketing
  • Sales should not only talk with prospect sooner, but offer a personalized experience
• Marketing
  • Continues to generate demand and deliver leads to sales
  • Needs to bridge the gap with sales as an overlap, not a hand-off.
  • Technology helps us through marketing automation
  • Working with sales produces a win-win for all sides
    • Marketing can influence the decision making process
    • Consumers can access resources they want in their own time
    • Sales reserves their time for following up with leads ready to buy now

• Our mindsets must shift from pushing a product or service to supporting the needs of the prospect
  • It s not about what we or sales wants to say, it s about what the prospect needs to hear. Example: Customer-centric messaging
• We can accomplish this shift in a few ways:
  • Understand the different interpretation of shared vocabulary like lead, contact/person, targeting, account/company
  • Understand how sales thinks
    • Example: sales is focused on closing the deal while marketing is interesting in changing hearts and minds
    • ABM (Account Based Marketing) is a great opportunity to align marketing activities with sales activities
  • Align goals and agree on standards by defining SQLs, MQL, setting up SLAs and creating a feedback loGenerate shared vocabulary through Personas and Customer Journeys
  • Generate shared vocabulary through Personas and Customer Journeys
    • This helps create a consistent experience for the prospect and aligns marketing and sales by documenting each other’s efforts

We hope you want to join us on our journey. Find us on IterativeMarketing.net, the hub for the methodology and community. Email us at podcast@iterativemarketing.net, follow us on twitter at @iter8ive or join The Iterative Marketing Community LinkedIn group.

The Iterative Marketing Podcast is a production of Brilliant Metrics, a consultancy helping brands and agencies rid the world of marketing waste.

Producer: Heather Ohlman
Transcription: Emily Bechtel
Music: SeaStock Audio

Onward and upward!

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