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.” The problem is underscored in the S&MM/AMA survey,
A new survey jointly conducted by Sales & Marketing Manage- which asked respondents which marketing tactics are most often
ment and the American Marketing Association pointed up the mishandled or fail to support sales. Leading the list was inade-
issues profoundly. In the poll of quate Web sites (in its “collateral materials” function as a primary
1,508 sales and marketing execu- source of product information), and second, poor physical col-
tives, as well as chief executives, lateral materials themselves. The essential worth of collateral sur-
there was broad agreement about faced in another poll question, which asked for a ranking of the
customer messaging. Both sales and most essential sales assets: Brochures and associated product
marketing think that getting their information were ranked as most critical by 61 percent of respon-
companies’value proposition right, dents, outranking any other sales asset. Web sites again were cited
and then communicating it effec- in response to this question, reinforcing the perception that the
tively to customers, is the number- Internet, universally appreciated for its potential in supporting
one priority when it comes to mar-
SAVO GROUP’S keting and sales integration.
John Aiello wants
Among marketing executives, 75 percent of the
Finger Pointing
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- in Both Directions
pany brand and value proposition is critical to the marketing-sales

W
ant to gauge how severe the disconnect between
partnership. And the sentiment was echoed among those in sales: sales and marketing is? Consider how marketing’s
The importance of marketing messages was rated nearly as high, analysis of the problem differs from that of sales. In
and led all other considerations in this sector. the Sales & Marketing Management/American Marketing Asso-
“In business-to-business selling, purchasing decisions are ciation survey, respondents who identified themselves as
overwhelmingly made as a result of conversations that salespeo- either marketers or salespeople (whether managers or reps)
ple have with decision makers,” says John Aiello, CEO of the Savo were pretty clear that the “other side” could do better.
Group, a sales-enablement company based in Chicago. “That’s Among marketers, the single most critical aspect of sales and
where the real magic happens, face-to-face. Once you recognize marketing alignment was sales being able to speak coherently
that, then you have to ask yourself,‘What are we doing as a mar- about the company, its brand, and the distinctiveness of its prod-
keting or sales team to arm sales with the right tools to execute ucts or services. But the viewpoint of sales was different: Almost
this ground war?’ ” two thirds of sales respondents indicated that the most critical
alignment issue for them is whether the marketing messages
CAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG? they’re actually getting from marketing are any good or not.
But is marketing adequately supplying sales with the right com- Marketers seem to be saying, “Sales, execute better with the
munications tools? Aiello doesn’t think so, and he believes this materials we’re giving you.” Meanwhile, the sentiment of sales
is symptomatic of the sales-marketing disconnect overall. He appears to be, “We’ll do it well if you give us the best tools.”
says that as much as 40 percent of a salesperson’s job is consumed Another apparent attitudinal disconnect lies in the genera-
with putting together selling materials in preparation for meet- tion and dispersal of qualified leads. Among marketers, 61 per-
ings and presentations, a critical proportion of time that is bet- cent indicated that sales follow-up on leads was essential to
ter spent selling. Worsening the situation is that a very small per- alignment, while salespeople at exactly the same percentage
centage of salespeople can actually craft decent selling materials, indicated they needed quality leads if they’re going to follow
not to mention the right message for the right situation. up well. Again, this indicates that both marketing and sales
“That’s an enormous amount of time that is not value-added,” know what’s essential to success, but perhaps have some dis-
Aiello says.“It’s an indicator of an organization that is not work- trust in the ability of the other side to get the job done. —C.H.
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- For complete results
ing. People don’t necessarily allude to the misalignment of sales
from the alignment survey go to
www.salesandmarketing.com/marketing
and marketing; rather, they feel the pain of that misalignment.”

www.salesandmarketing.com JUNE 2006 SALES&MARKETING MANAGEMENT 39

 s&mm/ama survey

sales, is nevertheless not fulfilling that potential. “You have to be empathetic to

“Ideally, you have to take a look at all the great things that mar- what salespeople need, and at the
keting is doing, and then examine if that is really what sales needs,” same time remain cognizant of
says Judy Jones, marketing director, sales enablement, with Unisys your brand,” Jones says.“The goal
Corporation, a technology services and solutions company based is to equip salespeople to have
in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. Unisys’ approach to what is called cus- intelligent conversations with
tomer message management focuses on specific accounts, with their clients.”
the messages customized as much as possible to individual clients. Unisys is in the process of
examining and reshaping its cus-
tomer message management, and
ALIGNMENT
is conducting pilot programs with
Wider Scope Drives EXPERT Bob
a number of vendors to develop possible solu- Schmonsees
urges a common

Alignment Push 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.)

W
hen John Meyer joined Lucent Technologies in
2003, coming over from IT consulting firm EDS to Unisys is working on its messages and on ways to automate the
head up the Lucent Worldwide Services division, messaging process to quickly generate customized communica-
his goal was simple: to broaden the offerings of a products- tions tools that conform well with a customer’s specific needs.
oriented company, and develop its professional services arm.
Services, the theory went, would augment Lucent’s telecom- THE CATTLE CALL
munications equipment offerings, with a focus more clearly Driving much of the debate over sales-marketing alignment is the
on solutions. Signaling the gathering importance of technol- need to adequately differentiate one’s products from those of the
ogy services to the company, based in Murray Hill, New Jer- competition. In fact, in the survey, S&MM subscribers and AMA
sey, Meyer in April was named president of Lucent’s Global members both agreed that the goal most at risk from poor mar-
Sales and Services to more fully transform the company keting and sales integration is that very thing—product or serv-
toward the services and solutions model. ices differentiation. When asked about at-risk goals, differentia-
Lucent’s services push has had another effect: a new- tion was cited most often (by 68 percent of respondents), with a
found emphasis on sales-marketing alignment. related goal—the ability to sell value over price—receiving nearly
“I like to say, if you have a product, you have a solution as much support (60 percent).
looking for a problem,” says Barbara LaGuardia, global mar- No other goal was viewed nearly as threatened by poor align-
keting director for Lucent Worldwide Services in Naperville, ment as differentiation and value-based selling.
Illinois. “But with services, you first come to the client and “Most companies’ products and services look so much alike,
try to understand his problem, and then put a solution and the customer is overwhelmed with everyone’s information,
together. The way to sell services is vastly different from which only makes them more confused,” says Tim Riesterer,
selling products.” president and cofounder of CMM Group, based in Milwaukee,
Lucent’s services salespeople undergo training in consul- which provides its clients with marketing-message development
tative-selling techniques, while marketing people have their and delivery services.“With so many potential customers think-
own training tracks in how to develop consultative-oriented ing everybody’s stuff sounds alike, these customers often figure
materials to support sales. The company’s Web site (a criti- they can’t go wrong by just bringing in the top three choices,
cal alignment tool) was redesigned to emphasize solutions, and then beating them up on price.”
and all primary and secondary collateral materials have But nobody wants to play that game. Sales training is often
been revamped. oriented toward solving this with solution selling courses, urg-
The financial rationale for the new emphasis at Lucent is ing that the sales conversation focus on business problems and
a serious one; while earnings and revenue have been on a challenges, and the specific products or services in the salesper-
slide due to weakening products sales, its services wing has son’s portfolio that fit those needs.
seen revenue increase 8 percent in the first half of fiscal “But that’s like building a race car without putting gas in the
2006, to $1.2 billion. —C.H. tank,” Riesterer asserts. “You can train salespeople in that way
to sell, but if you’re going to have a good diagnostic conversa-

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

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 [email protected]

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