I’m trying Mandy, I really am. When you wrote “I don’t really want to break up with you“ it got to me. I thought about it – and I think I understand. (By the way, what you wrote has now been read by thousands of people online, and I’m not sure how I feel about that.) You’re a girl working in sales and I’m a boy working in marketing, and I get the sense that you think I am letting you down. Well, you’re not on your own, many of your friends feel the same – but there are two sides to every story.
If we both know how the other feels, the things that upset and disappoint, then we can begin to fix it. So I did what any good marketing person would do – I did some research. Don’t laugh or roll your eyes please. Respect what I do. I don’t want to break up with you either, but you need to give me a chance.
Looking around the Internet I took part in an interesting study. It’s just as if they looked inside your head to see what you were really thinking – and not just your head, hundreds of others as well, your kind and mine. And guess what? The issues that we have in our relationship are not that uncommon. I got an early look at some of the results that might explain the tension between that exists between sales and marketing people everywhere. That tension never feels too good, does it?
There’s a pretty chart towards the end here – you know I needed to include a chart, right? – but there are a few things that we need to talk about.
The good news is that is not just you and me, it’s not just us. Lots of sales and marketing people have the problems. But I’m not saying that this makes it ok. This is not marketing spin. There is a lot that we have to fix if we want this relationship to work. But I understand it better now – and you can too – and I hope that’s the first step to getting us back on the right track.
- Did you know that about half (47%) of all sales people think that marketing is not a good investment of the company’s resources? Really? Just so as you know, that view is not shared by marketing. Most (89%) feel pretty secure in the value that we deliver.
- And sales is not perfect either. Just over half of your colleagues think that you are good at getting the most from each deal – so you have work to do here. I have to admit though that when just a quarter of my co-workers in marketing agree with that perspective, we might look at ourselves and wonder what we can do to make things better for you. I don’t see that happening a lot.
There are two other things that I learned from the research that really bothered me.
- Firstly, even though everyone in marketing works their tails off to get opportunities for you, just 35% of sales people think that we deliver a reasonable number of sales opportunities. What do you expect from us? I know you want more and more opportunities, but you’re saying we don’t even deliver a reasonable number today. That’s very demotivating.
But here’s the killer.
- Half, yes one in two sellers, believe that we do not understand our customers. How do you think we get anything right if that’s the case? Everything starts with the customer. You know that; in fact most sellers and marketers agree that you care deeply about the customers, and advocate for their well-being. I also know that everything starts with the customer – but apparently I don’t know it well enough. Are you serious?
I’m not going to go through all of the other things I learned. It’s a little depressing. You can see the rest of the preliminary analysis in the chart below.
Here’s your CTA.
Sorry I just went back into marketing speak. Maybe that tells me something. CTA means Call To Action. You probably knew that.
This is what I would like you to do.
Read the Business Performance Benchmark Study – it explains a lot.
There is more about the actual study below the chart.
I’m staying positive. I don’t want to break up with you either.
The 2017 Business Performance Benchmark Study is designed by Altify with support from iDDea. It was crafted to be the definitive guide to the strategic issues that companies will need to contend with in 2017. It examines the strategic impact on business of the changing global economic environment, and political developments and technology advancements such as Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence. It also explores the revenue considerations that are uppermost in the minds of executives and managers as well as the areas where they feel performance is likely to be challenging or can be improved. I think it’s worth a read.
Then Mandy, please call me. We can work through this.
Jack x
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Donal Daly is Executive Chairman of Altify having founded the company in 2005. He is author of numerous books and ebooks including the Amazon #1 Best-sellers Account Planning in Salesforce and Tomorrow | Today: How AI Impacts How We Work, Live, and Think. Altify is Donal’s fifth global business enterprise.