An interesting dialog came up in our LinkedIn Group that highlighted this issue. I
t all started out with a simple question (as many juicy conversations do) with asking the group “In one word, what is their biggest marketing challenge for their company?” Originally in asking this question, I wanted to see if there were any similarities across the automation industry as to their big challenges…I was thinking awareness, leads, and thoughts of that nature. What developed, though, was something else and raised an “old” yet relevant issue between marketing, sales and the executives: RESPECT.
Rich Merritt, a veteran PR consultant commented first:
Getting upper management to appreciate what marcom people do. Too many of them think PR is so easy, anybody can do it. Sales doesn’t appreciate us, high-level managers think we are a waste of money, and the accountant-types will fire us and their PR and ad agencies at the first sign of a downturn. We don’t get no respect.
Since I’ve been out of corporate life for awhile, I was thinking this problem was not as prevalent. My thoughts were that perhaps it wasn’t a respect issue, but more that marketing has had challenges coming up with evidence that their programs worked using closed loop systems… My response…
Respect is a big concern. It’s sad to think that after all these years, Marketing still doesn’t get the full respect it deserves. You make a good point – when PR looks easy, it means that people are working their butts off behind the scenes to make connections and bring things to fruition. The same thing can be said about sales too.
I’ve also seen, like you, that marketing is the first thing to cut in a recession. That’s also because many companies don’t invest in systems that can help with a closed loop process to track conversions in marketing programs, so we’re stuck whistling dixie trying to piece together data that is not cohesive to prove that programs affect the business. Finally marketing automation has come around to help address that process.
Mike Robertson. who presented around this topic at last year’s Summit, added his ten cents to the conversation and raised the ante around sales-marketing disconnections:
…it sounds like the one word may be “DISRESPECT”. Not just the disrespect between marketing and management but also the disrespect between marketing and sales. If you could fix the second that might fix the first too.
What if your marketing team and sales team became a marketing and sales team? When was the last time marketing attended sales training or sales was represented on a product marketing team? Does your marketing program support your sales process and does you sales process take full advantage of your marketing program?
What if that really happened? Some of my biggest a-ha moments in my marketing career happened when I was either (1) attending a sales call with a sales rep or (2) engaged in dialog with a sales person who shared with me exactly what they needed vs. what marketing was delivering. It was always very revealing to see a sales person in action, using tools that marketing created. All the shortcomings (and usefulness) would become glaringly clear in those instances. Talk about valuable insight!
Is this disconnect as wide as it always has been? My rose colored glasses had thought this divide was closing, but apparently it’s as ominous as ever. What is the problem here from your experience? Is it a lack of closed loop systems to prove marketing’s contribution in the sales funnel? Or is it deeper than that?
Hi Juliann,
Depending on the particular company, there may be a variety of reasons why the disconnect still persists: culture, organization, internal politics, biases among senior management. In addition, sales training programs often reinforce the division by marginalizing marketing’s role. But at the end of the day, marketing needs to own up to being a contributor. Too often they over-commit and under-deliver, particularly against objectives over which they have little control.
Instead, marketing needs do a better job with the fundamentals, like exerting tighter control over messaging and content, delivering higher quality leads, and advocating the value of process over “seat of the pants.” Only then, with data in hand, can they claim a stake in the revenue cycle and place expectations on sales.
The two tactics you mentioned are a great start – engaging with customers and sales. They help marketers see the world through the customers’ eyes and break the ice with sales. The next step is to take those learnings and translate them into action.
Michael,
Many thanks for the comment. You raise some excellent points, it does come down to each company and the culture/history of how sales and marketing interact. I know that when I was working on the corporate side, I didn’t have much in terms of evidence to support claims that my marketing efforts were driving sales up until I began working more closely with sales. The sales team appreciated my efforts and began keeping me apprised of their progress and even invited me into their sales cycles, which was very cool. So much can be learned from direct interactions with customers and sales, it seems like a no-brainer to me. It’s the pudding in the middle of the cake, it’s the tootsie roll in the lolipop. But like you said, biases, culture and all that comes into play. I think that once marketing begins investing in automation for their efforts, they will be able to better represent their programs and overall impact to the business more clearly. For those companies who don’t respect marketing will lag to adopt such systems, and well, the struggle will unfortunately continue.
Absolutely. Automation is the marketer’s friend – the way to track and analyze pipeline conversions; figure out what works; become more predictive in future campaigns; and, as you say, demonstrate marketing’s business value.