s&mm/ama survey

Curing the
Sales-Marketing
Disconnect Achieving better integration between marketing and
sales can jolt you toward the next competitive advantage
By Christopher Hosford

ALES-MARKETING ALIGNMENT IS ONE OF tional, a sales and marketing management consulting company

S those essential corporate considerations seem-

ingly more honored in the breach than in the
observance. Sales managers and salespeople com-
plain about what they see as low-quality
leads and bone-dry collateral delivered by marketing,
while marketing moans about off-brand messaging
and lousy feedback from the field.
based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“There’s an avalanche of information, and the noise level
has gone up dramatically. The new fight is just to have the

Ability to differentiate your product

Sales begs for more complete, easily available cus-
tomer relationship management (CRM) information
and powerful corporate messaging delivered through Ability to sell value over price
public relations, advertising, or trade show exposure.
Marketing, meanwhile, is equally focused on the CRM Goals Most
function, but urges sales to work hard on solution sell- Consistent brand Threatened
ing and be more proactive in sharing best practices. reinforcement By Poor
In short, sales and marketing suffer much too often Alignment
from a major disconnect, worsened by mutual distrust Differentiating one's
Ability to products from the
and perhaps even a lack of respect. But it doesn’t have meet quota
to be that way. In fact, it can’t; the coexistence and competition is the goal
that suffers most from
mutual support of sales and marketing are essential to poor sales-marketing
corporate survival, not to mention success, in today’s Leverage benefits integration.
competitive marketplace. of product launches
“The flow of opportunities has abated, and now 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
people are fighting for the scraps,” says Robert Kear,
Source: Sales & Marketing Management/American Marketing Association survey of 1,508 executives
chief marketing officer of Sales Performance Interna-

38 SALES&MARKETING MANAGEMENT JUNE 2006 www.salesandmarketing.com

 opportunity to sell, to get to play the game.”
A new survey jointly conducted by Sales & Marketing Manage-
ment and the American Marketing Association pointed up the
issues profoundly. In the poll of
1,508 sales and marketing execu-
tives, as well as chief executives,
there was broad agreement about
customer messaging. Both sales and
marketing think that getting their
companies’value proposition right,
and then communicating it effec-
tively to customers, is the number-
one priority when it comes to mar-
SAVO GROUP’S keting and sales integration.
John Aiello wants
Among marketing executives, 75 percent of the
better tools for
the sales “ground respondents—the highest level of agreement on
wars.”
any question posed in the survey—agreed that the
ability of sales to accurately and distinctively articulate the com-
pany brand and value proposition is critical to the marketing-sales
partnership. And the sentiment was echoed among those in sales:
The importance of marketing messages was rated nearly as high,
and led all other considerations in this sector.
“In business-to-business selling, purchasing decisions are
overwhelmingly made as a result of conversations that salespeo-
ple have with decision makers,” says John Aiello, CEO of the Savo
Group, a sales-enablement company based in Chicago. “That’s
where the real magic happens, face-to-face. Once you recognize
that, then you have to ask yourself,‘What are we doing as a mar-
keting or sales team to arm sales with the right tools to execute
this ground war?’ ”
CAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?
But is marketing adequately supplying sales with the right com-
munications tools? Aiello doesn’t think so, and he believes this
is symptomatic of the sales-marketing disconnect overall. He
says that as much as 40 percent of a salesperson’s job is consumed
with putting together selling materials in preparation for meet-
ings and presentations, a critical proportion of time that is bet-
ter spent selling. Worsening the situation is that a very small per-
centage of salespeople can actually craft decent selling materials,
not to mention the right message for the right situation.
“That’s an enormous amount of time that is not value-added,”
Aiello says.“It’s an indicator of an organization that is not work-
ing. Sales is concerned about having to do this nonvalue-added
work, and marketing is worried that its brand is not delivered
consistently, that there is no control or consistency in the messag-
ing. People don’t necessarily allude to the misalignment of sales
and marketing; rather, they feel the pain of that misalignment.”
www.salesandmarketing.com
The problem is underscored in the S&MM/AMA survey,
which asked respondents which marketing tactics are most often
mishandled or fail to support sales. Leading the list was inade-
quate Web sites (in its “collateral materials” function as a primary
source of product information), and second, poor physical col-
lateral materials themselves. The essential worth of collateral sur-
faced in another poll question, which asked for a ranking of the
most essential sales assets: Brochures and associated product
information were ranked as most critical by 61 percent of respon-
dents, outranking any other sales asset. Web sites again were cited
in response to this question, reinforcing the perception that the
Internet, universally appreciated for its potential in supporting
Finger Pointing
in Both Directions
W
ant to gauge how severe the disconnect between
sales and marketing is? Consider how marketing’s
analysis of the problem differs from that of sales. In
the Sales & Marketing Management/American Marketing Asso-
ciation survey, respondents who identified themselves as
either marketers or salespeople (whether managers or reps)
were pretty clear that the “other side” could do better.
Among marketers, the single most critical aspect of sales and
marketing alignment was sales being able to speak coherently
about the company, its brand, and the distinctiveness of its prod-
ucts or services. But the viewpoint of sales was different: Almost
two thirds of sales respondents indicated that the most critical
alignment issue for them is whether the marketing messages
they’re actually getting from marketing are any good or not.
Marketers seem to be saying, “Sales, execute better with the
materials we’re giving you.” Meanwhile, the sentiment of sales
appears to be, “We’ll do it well if you give us the best tools.”
Another apparent attitudinal disconnect lies in the genera-
tion and dispersal of qualified leads. Among marketers, 61 per-
cent indicated that sales follow-up on leads was essential to
alignment, while salespeople at exactly the same percentage
indicated they needed quality leads if they’re going to follow
up well. Again, this indicates that both marketing and sales
know what’s essential to success, but perhaps have some dis-
trust in the ability of the other side to get the job done. —C.H.
For complete results
from the alignment survey go to
www.salesandmarketing.com/marketing
JUNE 2006 SALES&MARKETING MANAGEMENT 39
 s&mm/ama survey
sales, is nevertheless not fulfilling that potential.
“Ideally, you have to take a look at all the great things that mar-
keting is doing, and then examine if that is really what sales needs,”
says Judy Jones, marketing director, sales enablement, with Unisys
Corporation, a technology services and solutions company based
in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. Unisys’ approach to what is called cus-
tomer message management focuses on specific accounts, with
the messages customized as much as possible to individual clients.
Wider Scope Drives
Alignment Push
W
hen John Meyer joined Lucent Technologies in
2003, coming over from IT consulting firm EDS to
head up the Lucent Worldwide Services division,
his goal was simple: to broaden the offerings of a products-
oriented company, and develop its professional services arm.
Services, the theory went, would augment Lucent’s telecom-
munications equipment offerings, with a focus more clearly
on solutions. Signaling the gathering importance of technol-
ogy services to the company, based in Murray Hill, New Jer-
sey, Meyer in April was named president of Lucent’s Global
Sales and Services to more fully transform the company
toward the services and solutions model.
Lucent’s services push has had another effect: a new-
found emphasis on sales-marketing alignment.
“I like to say, if you have a product, you have a solution
looking for a problem,” says Barbara LaGuardia, global mar-
keting director for Lucent Worldwide Services in Naperville,
Illinois. “But with services, you first come to the client and
try to understand his problem, and then put a solution
together. The way to sell services is vastly different from
selling products.”
Lucent’s services salespeople undergo training in consul-
tative-selling techniques, while marketing people have their
own training tracks in how to develop consultative-oriented
materials to support sales. The company’s Web site (a criti-
cal alignment tool) was redesigned to emphasize solutions,
and all primary and secondary collateral materials have
been revamped.
The financial rationale for the new emphasis at Lucent is
a serious one; while earnings and revenue have been on a
slide due to weakening products sales, its services wing has
seen revenue increase 8 percent in the first half of fiscal
2006, to $1.2 billion. —C.H.
40 SALES&MARKETING MANAGEMENT JUNE 2006
“You have to be empathetic to
what salespeople need, and at the
same time remain cognizant of
your brand,” Jones says.“The goal
is to equip salespeople to have
intelligent conversations with
their clients.”
Unisys is in the process of
examining and reshaping its cus-
tomer message management, and
ALIGNMENT
is conducting pilot programs with
EXPERT Bob
a number of vendors to develop possible solu- Schmonsees
urges a common
tions. (Aiello’s Savo Group, which offers an auto- customer-centric
mated message-management solution called
vision.
Sales Asset Manager, was involved in one of the pilot programs.)
Unisys is working on its messages and on ways to automate the
messaging process to quickly generate customized communica-
tions tools that conform well with a customer’s specific needs.
THE CATTLE CALL
Driving much of the debate over sales-marketing alignment is the
need to adequately differentiate one’s products from those of the
competition. In fact, in the survey, S&MM subscribers and AMA
members both agreed that the goal most at risk from poor mar-
keting and sales integration is that very thing—product or serv-
ices differentiation. When asked about at-risk goals, differentia-
tion was cited most often (by 68 percent of respondents), with a
related goal—the ability to sell value over price—receiving nearly
as much support (60 percent).
No other goal was viewed nearly as threatened by poor align-
ment as differentiation and value-based selling.
“Most companies’ products and services look so much alike,
and the customer is overwhelmed with everyone’s information,
which only makes them more confused,” says Tim Riesterer,
president and cofounder of CMM Group, based in Milwaukee,
which provides its clients with marketing-message development
and delivery services.“With so many potential customers think-
ing everybody’s stuff sounds alike, these customers often figure
they can’t go wrong by just bringing in the top three choices,
and then beating them up on price.”
But nobody wants to play that game. Sales training is often
oriented toward solving this with solution selling courses, urg-
ing that the sales conversation focus on business problems and
challenges, and the specific products or services in the salesper-
son’s portfolio that fit those needs.
“But that’s like building a race car without putting gas in the
tank,” Riesterer asserts. “You can train salespeople in that way
to sell, but if you’re going to have a good diagnostic conversa-
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tion, you need the content. The content is the fuel. And the start- advertising or marketing people want conveyed. It’s bad any
ing point is not the collateral, or even sales methodology; it’s time you provide confusion in the marketplace.” McKinley, a
answering the customer’s problem.” former marketer with high-tech companies Computer Associ-
Riesterer feels the path to customized messaging is more ates and Artisoft, is author of Marketing Alignment: Break-
simple than people often realize, because some 80 percent of through Strategies for Growth and Profitability.
all customer problems recur. Thus, the number of all solutions It’s not surprising, then, that the need for feedback is a con-
is manageable—at least there aren’t an infinite number of cus- sistently uttered mantra among sales and marketing managers.
tomized messages required—while still requiring consistent, The message both sides are sending each other is clear: Let us
often extensive customization. know what you and others are thinking.
In the S&MM/AMA poll, for example, the need for a steady
YOU TALKIN’ TO ME? stream of data, in both directions, was evinced again and again.
One of the truths of sales and marketing integration is that the Here is a list, in order of importance, of the approaches managers
disconnect may arise from the very successes the company is feel can be most helpful in driving shared best practices between
sales and marketing:
1. Better feedback from sales to mar-
Sales collateral keting.
2. More aggressive research and vali-
Web site
dation to determine customer needs.
Customer presentation 3. More proactive involvement by sales
in developing marketing messages and
Sales coaching/prep materials tools.
Trade show participation 4. Sales training on best practices.
5. Increasing marketing ride-alongs
Proposal & RFP response on actual sales calls.
Most Helpful The first, third, and fifth most-cited
Advertising Tools for Sales solutions to sales success all involve
Corporate brochures Sales collateral and communications. Marketing cries out
Web sites—key marketing for sales to tell it what’s happening in
E-mail marketing support efforts—are deemed most
the field, and to let it know what works
critical in helping sales do
its job better. best on actual sales calls and presenta-
Customer case studies
tions. And sales retorts with the chal-
Public relations lenge: Okay, marketing, come on along
with us on ride-alongs to learn first-
Telemarketing support hand the realities of the marketplace.
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% Sales coaching and best-practices
Source: Sales & Marketing Management/American Marketing Association survey of 1,508 executives training also were cited in the survey
as critical to sales success. Both are the
seeking. As organizations grow, the alliance between sales and epitome of communications in action, which marketing can
marketing can drift apart: Information about what customers help facilitate on behalf of sales.
are saying isn’t necessarily passed along, customer support may “Marketing has to be closer to sales,” says Bob Schmonsees, of
get short shrift, and communications with sales-channel part- marketing firm RJS Associates based in Lake Anna, Virginia, and
ners may suffer. the author of Escaping the Black Hole: Minimizing the Damage
It can even suffer when the C-suite is out of touch. from the Marketing-Sales Disconnect. “You have to look at it as a
“The disconnect definitely goes to the top,” says Mac McKin- collaborative team effort, rather than one driving the other, with
ley of Mas Group, a marketing consulting firm based in Austin, a common vision of solving customers’business problems.” s&mm
Texas.“Senior vice presidents and CEOs often make PowerPoint
presentations in front of investors, or go on press tours, but Respond to this article! Slam it, agree with it, or expand on it, and add your
many times they’re not conveying the same messages their voice to S&MM. E-mail your viewpoint to edit@salesandmarketing.com

www.salesandmarketing.com JUNE 2006 SALES&MARKETING MANAGEMENT 41