Podcast: What Sales Really Needs From Marketing
John Jantsch, small business marketing expert and author of Duct Tape Marketing recently interviewed me and sales expert Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies about what sales really needs from marketing.
This podcast was conducted for the marketing alliance partners for Sage Software, makers of ACT!, Peachtree and SageCRM software. John originally hoped that Jill and I would debate or lock horns (Jill from the sales viewpoint and me from the marketing viewpoint). Instead, we could almost finish each others sentences : )
This is one of my favorite podcasts. I share more ideas on what marketing can do to create and nurture leads before handing them off to the sales force.
Listen to podcast now (MP3 60 min 45 MB)
P.S. I just read John Jantsch’s new book, Duct Tape Marketing. If you’re a small business owner (or plan to be one in the future) you’ll want to put this book on your reading list. It’s great. If you decide to get a copy, you should check out his bonus offers. I’ll be posting my Amazon review soon.
Current Affairs, Lead Generation, Lead Nurturing, Lead Qualification, Marketing Strategy, My Podcast, Sales, Sales Leads
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It’s really interesting to come across blogs discussing the merits of marketing or sales with regard to leads and what is done/not done with them.
What is of real interest to me is why there should be functional tension in the first place. If there wasn’t and everyone was singing off the same hymnsheet the argument would go away!
Having spent over 25 years in IT sales with both very large and very small companies, and having worked as an independent consultant over the past couple of years I am amazed in how many companies (in the UK – and I would hazard the US is the same)the same issues crop up time and time again at ‘C’ level:
1. The company has a business plan – usually heavily finance focused and often out of date (after all, like a balance sheet it is only a snapshot in time).
2. If there is a sales and marketing plan, it is either sales OR marketing that has ownership, and not BOTH.
3. Different ownership leads to differences of a very obvious nature – what is the target market? (the sector is easy enough, but what about which companies, and which individuals); what is the Value Proposition for the target market exactly? (good sales people will usually make this up in order to get the business if they have no clear steer ‘from the top’ – it may NOT be the Value Proposition that the company needs or even wants); what pricing should be adopted? (get it wrong in marketing and the sales people will have hours of fun with it)…and so on.
My point being that the problems and responsibilities lie at the top. Insufficient time seems to be spent on positive, aggressive planning leading to actions that all understand, agree with and act on – TOGETHER!
Another fabulous podcast! As a professional who works in insurance marketing, I’m always looking for great marketing books. ‘Duct Tape Marketing’ I enjoyed immensely! The tips in there are great for everybody – not just those of us who make a living selling insurance! Couldn’t recommend it anymore than I do!