Phil Lauterjung

When I used to work at a Fortune 500 company we had a VP who was very provincial concerning his department.  Whenever another VP got a little too involved in his area he would  tell that other VP in no uncertain terms to “get out of my sandbox.”  I’m not quite sure why that has stuck in my brain all these years, but someone else can do the psychoanalysis on that.

I have seen that attitude persist in a lot of companies today between sales and marketing.  If you don’t believe that check out some of the other blogs on  the subject.  It’s been a hot topic lately – a lack of alignment between sales and marketing.

Twenty years ago I was a regional sales manager for that Fortune 500 company and it was an issue at that time – not openly discussed I will admit.  But, it boiled down to similar laments back then as now.  Sales says that marketing leads are weak, marketing doesn’t understand what sales really needs, marketing doesn’t involve sales in planning, marketing doesn’t understand the customer, etc.

Of course marketing has their issues with sales.  Sales reps don’t follow up the leads, sales doesn’t give marketing feedback on the leads they do follow up, sales takes all the credit when a deal closes, etc.  Sound familiar?  I hope not, but I fear that it does resonate all too loudly.

So how do you get sales and marketing to play nicely together.  Do they need a recess monitor near the sandbox?  H. L. Mencken once said, “For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.”  Since this issue has persisted for so many years that may appear to be the case; but, perhaps not.

Even though marketing and sales seem to look at the world differently, and are judged on very different metrics, maybe this isn’t so hard to solve.  I can think of three things that would be a good start.

1. Every CEO needs to give this a very high priority.  The sales revenue that his company generates affects the success or failure of that company.  He must insist on alignment between his chief marketing officer and his chief sales officer in order for their efforts to result in maximum sales.
2. Sales and marketing need to agree on a definition of what comprises a “sales-ready” lead.  All other leads need to remain with marketing and they need an equally well-defined process for lead nurturing.
3. The key to this is healthy and frequent communication between sales and marketing.  Marketing needs to involve sales in the planning of marketing programs, and sales needs to give marketing the field intelligence they have – all of it.  Sales and marketing need to become intertwined like the redwoods and learn to play together without throwing toys at one another.

How about your company?  What is working and what isn’t working?  What can you add to my three suggestions?

Photo courtesy of stock.xchng.com

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