Aligning marketing and sales...with what?

Marketing folks in B2B are obsessed with aligning marketing and sales. It's a longstanding pain point, and it always comes to the fore in a down economy. The problem, at least from my humble perspective, is that the discussion tends to rotate around the idea that marketing needs to align more fully with sales.

Four years ago, I wrote this:

The typical approach to marketing-sales alignment emphasizes getting marketing closer to sales through initiatives such as tighter alignment of marketing activities with the sales cycle, better coordination around demand generation and lead management, and allowing sales to have more input into marketing programs and materials. These types of initiatives certainly can be useful, but they risk reinforcing the standard industry view that marketing is ultimately the junior partner of sales and that the alignment problem is mainly one of marketers straying too far from the daily and quarterly demands of the sales force.

Has the discussion really changed? 

Beyond the junior partner idea, another common, unspoken assumption is that sales is just fine where it is. But we know that B2B sales is undergoing changes at least as dramatic as marketing. Globalization, transparency, ecosystem collaboration, the demand for custom solutions, and more are wreaking havoc with the traditional sales process just as they are with marketing. I didn't cover social media and communities in that 2006 article, but clearly they have an enormous impact on sales, too. Witness the seemingly endless number of "sales 2.0" conferences, consultants, and tools flying.

The real challenge is transformation, not just alignment. Of course marketing and sales need to work more closely together, but most of all they need to figure out how to collaborate in serving and attracting customers when their customers are: 

• Overwhelmed with information and choice
• Skeptical of any marketing or sales pitches
• Fully capable of researching solutions on their own
• Actively tapping social networks for insight and reviews far beyond what you can provide

I'm all for more agreement between marketing and sales on which leads matter, how to map marketing to the sales cycle, and where marketing can help most with key accounts. And I'm "traditional" enough to believe that face-to-face marketing and selling continue to be essential even as social media and online communities take center stage for both sales and marketing.

But if we don't look for a larger transformation in how both marketing and sales work -- and work together -- we run the risk of building alignment around a process that no longer fits the real world environment.  

What do you think?

Photo credit: Bill Ward's Brickpile

Comments

[Christopher Doran]

Great point, Rob. I think marketers often think that technology can solve their problems, when in reality, without the proper processes and communication in place with sales it has the potential to make things much worse.

[Barbra Gago]

Hey Rob,

This is a great post! I think you are 100% correct in saying that it's really a matter of collaboration, because in the end what is Sales and Marketing Alignment if not clear communication?

I think the biggest disconnect is simply due to the lack of collaboration between sales and marketing, and many times, even though you share a building, there are no devices in place to facilitate true, fluid communication between the two departments.

I don't think it's enough for the people who run the departments to meet and then translate, as social media has shown us, there is a bigger need to respond faster, but sales and / or marketing cannot if they are not equipped internally.

[Michael Selissen]

I recently came across a webinar in Marketo’s archive with the dubious title, “Can Marketing Help Sales?” So, you’re right. There is a lingering point of view out there that suggests all will be well if only marketing would toe the line.

But I also see mounting evidence that people do recognize the world is changing and are trying to transform how they sell. Every week there are case studies from MarketingSherpa that highlight the ways companies are experimenting. And folks like Mac McIntosh, Olivier Blanchard, and Robert Lesser (and countless others) constantly write about the benefits of an integrated partnership between marketing and sales – if not 50/50, at least something better than what currently exists.

As for real transformation, Christine Crandell has written about her lessons learned from restructuring marketing and sales from the ground up. And she is one of a gathering of voices who insist that marketers who participate in sales wins should be compensated accordingly.

Smart executives realize they’re leaving money on the table by not funding marketing to do a better job at lead generation, segmenting, lead management, and nurturing. And that they’ll lower their cost-per-touch by integrating email, inside sales, and direct mail together with marcom content and face-to-face meetings. Those are really sales tactics carried out by marketing. The only way they’ll work is if sales and marketing transform how they work together. And the only way that will happen is if the boss says so.

[Rob Leavitt]

Thanks Michael; its Friday, Im optimistic! I've read some of the folks you mention but have not seen Christines work so will definitely check that out. I agree that compensation is key here -- and its a challenge to marketing: are marketing folks willing to put their own comp on the line for direct contributions to revenue. And getting sales to pony up real cash for marketing programs is another key test of value. But we always need to keep in mind that big M marketing functions like market strategy, corporate vision, thought leadership, etc., remain critical, and are much less likely to gain serious support from sales in its current mode. Getting sales buy-in to those parts of the marketing function is part of the transformation Im talking about, too.

[David Dodd]

Rob,

I think your next-to-last sentence makes the most important point: "But if we don't look for a larger transformation in how both marketing and sales work - and work together - we run the risk of building alignment around a process that no longer fits the real world environment."

There are two factors driving the need for transformation. First, as you wrote, both marketing and sales need to develop processes that will work with B2B buyers who have easy access to a huge volume of information and are, therefore, more independent than ever before.

I would suggest that the second factor driving the need for transformation is the growing demand that both marketing and sales become more efficient. For years, we've treated marketing and sales as a "numbers game," and, for the most part, we've accepted huge and costly inefficiencies as being "just the way it is." As business becomes increasingly competitive, senior managers will demand that marketing and sales find more efficient ways to accomplish their mission.

[Rob Leavitt]

Thanks David -- great point about the efficiency push being another factor driving the need for transformation. Certainly in the tech sector were seeing marketing staff being squeezed hard. IDC budget data shows that even with marketing budgets set to rise slightly this year, its mainly going toward program expenditures, not additional staff, which are already seriously overstretched and struggling to keep up with required new skills around social. And Ive seen sales similarly squeezed, as you say. Good news is the growing focus on marketing operations and sales enablment, which might be a helpful bridge, but only if their focus, as I said, on new ways of working, not simply having marketing provide yet more old-style lead gen and sales support.