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Sorting Out the Sales and Marketing
Mess
By Thomas
Fee There
is a lot of confusion about the difference between sales and marketing.
Organizations today are struggling with these often conflicting roles
in an effort to allocate resources and recognition. In the
past, sales and marketing have competed in the activities that represent
the lowest common denominator, such as; qualification, product differentiation
and competitive positioning. The result of this approach is that vendors
are doing a poor job communicating a consistent message to customers.
Customers are not getting what they want and those in sales and marketing
spend more time competing with each other or duplicating efforts than
they do serving the customer. The solution for organizations victimized by this dilemma is to define
these roles in such a way that separates their disputable common ground.
So, forget everything you previously believed about sales and marketing
and let's talk about a hard business approach to the acquisition and retention of customers. Let's talk about the three
major areas of acquiring and keeping customers: Marketing, Sales and Implementation.
All three of these areas have tactical, strategic and competitive dimensions.
They can therefore not be differentiated by these criteria. Let's just
classify these dimensions as follows: • Tactical: • Strategic: • Competitive: One element
that is key to succeeding in the tactical, strategic or competitive arena
is knowledge of the customer, their business and their industry. Knowledge
is power only if it is correct and only if applied with a purpose. You
can recite the Annual Report verbatim but if you don't make the connection
between that information and why you are the best strategic choice – it
is useless. To efficiently
allocate resources and minimize duplication of effort, the organization
should focus on the differences rather than the similarities of sales,
marketing and implementation.
Marketing
The focus
of marketing in the process of customer acquisition is on products, services
and organizations. Targets include industries, market segments and demographically
defined customers. The purpose of a marketing campaign should include
the strategy and tactics involved in identifying and qualifying opportunities
while simultaneously positioning your organizations products and services. By positioning we mean two things:
1.
Mind Share - the identity of your organization in the customer's mind
2.
Competitively - your
position in relation to other competitors. Marketing's
responsibility is to clearly differentiate you from your competitors and
give reason for customers to think of you first in your field. Marketing
bears the front line responsibility of identifying who you are, what you
do and what opportunities exist in the marketplace. Secondly
they need to establish a link between your organization and prospective
customers. It is best if they can develop an actual dialogue with the
potential customers. On the
other hand, marketing must make the initial decision about whom you want
to select as potential customers. That is, which opportunities represent
the best chances for mutual success. Qualification includes an estimation
of general need and desirability as a future customer. This also includes,
at the tactical level, information regarding your products and services,
the organization and benefits of choosing you as a vendor. Finally there is a comprehensive dimension to marketing. They need to present the unique business value of your products and services. Additionally, they must differentiate you outside of products and services. This is where value selling begins. The result of good marketing should answer three questions:
1.
Who are
you?
2.
What you
do?
3.
Why are
you different? Sales
Sales
builds off the foundation laid by marketing to answer a fourth question:
Can you win the business? The focus on the intricate fit to the specific
business and the political realities determines your chances of future
success. Business
realities include developing enough understanding of the customer's business
to be able to determine whether your solution is better than the competition.
It's a double-edged sword – win the customer and beat the competition.
In this sense, all sales are complex. Sales
also needs to determine if a strong enough relationship exists at various
levels in both organizations to create a realistic opportunity for success.
Put plainly, will your influence and relationship survive the inevitable
problems of a business marriage. This requires that sales understand the
political nature of both organizations and their potential compatibility. Sales
must also be able to prove, not only that your solution will help the
customer accomplish their business objectives, but that you can do it
better than the competition. This means you know the people who can articulate
these objectives and how your solutions will help them succeed personally
and as
an organization. Sales must also determine mutually acceptable terms and
conditions upon which to base the business transaction with that account. Finally,
sales must identify if there is a compelling reason for the customer to
make a decision in a defined time period. This maps to the resource issue
i.e. is this a good use of sales time and resources at this point in time.
Implementation
The final
phase of customer acquisition focuses on how to measure the customer’s
success with your solution. Notice that the focus is the customer’s success.
The terms and conditions agreed to by sales should insure yours. Now it
is time to perform on the commitments made to the customer. The implementation
team develops the relationship at the products/services, business, company
and political levels. This means that they continue to grow with the account
by fulfilling the role of a resource provider at the business and personal
level. Not only are products and services success essential. To become
a value added resource provider you must also insure you are doing your
part to promote the individual success of those who support you. In the
competitive dimension, you must team with your allies in the account to
anticipate, resist and isolate competitive attempts to take business away.
Once you are the visible supplier you become the target. Customer retention
is an area where many good sales and marketing efforts fail. Statistics
show that it is cheaper to keep profitable existing business than to replace
it. This requires an emotional commitment to your customer. You must care
about keeping them. It goes way beyond dollars and cents. A strong
pro–active approach to insuring continuous instant success is essential
to a high level of customer retention. After the sale you should position
yourself as a consultant, committed to knowing their business, helping
solve problems, being innovative in aiding them in their success and continuing
to enable them to grow. Continually update the political map and make
adjustments to your strategy if the climate changes. Never let go, never
go away and be faithful to your customer.
Conclusions
No individual
"owns" an account. In today's complex and information filled
world of business, it is everybody's responsibility to acquire and/or
retain customers. The attitudes, actions and profits in this endeavor
incorporate everyone. The company owns the account. Everyone in the company
owns stock in every account and must do their part to insure its increasing
value. Certain
individuals may perform parts of all three elements (sales, marketing
and implementation) of customer acquisition and retention. For instance,
it may be shipping's responsibility to stock inventory (marketing) and
ship (implementation) and sales to write orders (sell) and help solve
problems (implement).
Customer Service (implementation) may identify and develop new opportunities
(marketing) in existing accounts. Some functions
are similar; marketing qualifies at the channel, industry and account
level. Sales qualifies the opportunity. Even though the functions are
similar, the level at which they are practiced or the environment makes
them different. An umbrella does the same thing rain or shine but has
a different purpose in each environment. You must
determine purpose and application of strategy and tactics in each environment
with regard to their role in customer acquisition and retention. In the
long run the organization owns their
accounts. It's not sales or marketing or customer service but all
of them share ownership of stock in the account. Each does their part
to provide value. All are separate but equal in importance. Let's
look at a summary marketing, sales and implementation: Marketing - Focus on Positioning • Establish your identity • Defines products/services • Communicates benefits • Establish general need • Pre-qualifies opportunities • Differentiates you from competition Sales
Focus on Business and Political Issues • Determines business fit • Tailors to specific needs • Establish business value • Develop terms and conditions of doing business • Creates business relationship • Establish political alignment with customer Implementation
Focus Facilitating Customer Success • Fulfills commitments to customers • Performs activities necessary to make customer
successful with your products and services • Develops lifetime business relationships that
create future business Sorting Out the Sales and Marketing
Mess continued
About the Author: Thomas
Fee is the founder of Performance Management Consultants™.
Performance Management Consultants™ is dedicated to providing the next
generation of professional development enhanced by technology and coaching
to enable users to change their behavior resulting in improved performance. They have
developed numerous programs and processes to enhance the skills, behaviors
and activities of managers, sales, client service and pre-sales (SE) professionals.
Performance Management Consultant’s™ programs address the specific challenges
faced by those working in the areas of business practice known as Customer
Relationship Management and Complex Sales.
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