The internet, customer relationship management (CRM) tools and automation of office functions have made it much easier for buyers to collect information about companies and products. If you’re a salesperson handing out brochures, your days are numbered. Adequate marketing is required to support the new channel of information exchange, not salespeople.
Lean and Six-Sigma have significantly reduced the amount of play-by-play project updates, problem resolution and hand-holding that buyers used to require. Salespeople who think they are adding value by “servicing” accounts are finding it much more difficult to justify their positions. The service that buyers require is much better provided by internal staff who can impact the operations side of the business. Keeping internal staff laser focused on the brand’s objectives, the intended customer experience and aware of market intelligence requirements is much better served by marketing than sales.
So what is the role of sales? High performing salespeople must provide value whether they are developing existing accounts or opening up new accounts. The magic word is value. Simply put, salespeople need to solve messy problems that are not yet clear enough for a client to “place an order” and fill their need. Better yet, salespeople should make buyers aware of opportunities and threats that they haven’t considered and offer ways for them to take appropriate action. Tom Snyder and Kevin Kearns have this to say in their book Escaping the Price Driven Sale,”Customers are now more sophisticated and will pay a premium for insight, analysis, and expertise they cannot get anywhere else but from the sales experience.” Honestly, are your salespeople wowing customers with insight, analysis and expertise?
Here’s the rub; the people who are qualified to provide this high level of value are not going to “prospect” the old fashioned way. They’re simply not wired to do it, nor should their time be chewed up doing something that marketing can do better, faster, cheaper. Therefore marketing needs to pick up the slack when it comes to creating awareness, establishing credibility, building confidence and engaging buyers on their terms. Sales professionals should be positioned by marketing as high-level consultants with whom a buyer should lean on for expertise. It’s really no different than promoting a sought after speaker. If your sales people can’t honestly where the badge of “I’m an expert in my field”, it’s time to develop your team. Marketing needs sales, and sales needs marketing.
Recommended articles:
To understand what it means to engage buyers on their terms, read McKinsey’s article, The Consumer Decision Journey. Note the comments at the end of the article where McKinsey gives credit to Spearhead.
For more on the relationship between sales and marketing and why they need each other, read Made For Each Other by Elisabeth A. Sullivan, Marketing News 07.30.09
Now you know why we are Spearhead Sales AND Marketing. Emerging companies need a comprehensive effort, not one or the other.