Resolving the Sales and Marketing Conflict

Marketing and sales are often at odds, each claiming unmet needs from the other. It doesn’t have to be that way. By aligning marketing and sales, B2B organizations can power up growth.

If business to business marketers are being honest, they’ll tell you that the sales teams they support don’t value brand marketing, don’t effectively communicate what’s working and what’s not and that sales does a poor job of articulating their needs or don’t provide quality feedback along the project completion path resulting in delays.

If the sale’s team is being honest, they’ll tell you that their marketing team doesn’t understand the business they support and therefore deliver materials and programs that miss the mark. They’ll accuse marketing of being more concerned about brand and creative than creating initiatives that support bottom line results.

If I’m being honest, I’ll tell you that all these things are true. 

However, if corporate budgets are being slashed, guess which one of these two organizations will be targeted first? It’s marketing and it’s because marketing often fails to demonstrate a positive return on investment. 

A Hard Truth

Budgets for marketing in B2B organizations are funded, directly or indirectly, by sales revenue. Therefore, it’s incumbent on marketing teams to demonstrate that they’re returning to the organization the substantial investment placed in them. It starts with understanding measures that matter to sales and leadership.

Many B2B marketing teams have their own set of KPI’s that don’t align with sales’ needs or numbers. Marketing will often talk about the volume of materials they’ve churned out for sales and the number of work hours their team has contributed. They’ll wax on about KPI’s they exceeded for digital ads, social engagement, media impressions, etc. What marketing teams often aren’t talking about enough, and what they should be focused on, is the bottom-line impact of every dollar invested on behalf of the sales organization. 

Here’s an example from a company at which I was employed:

Marketing had been given a $100k budget to help increase ancillary product membership within one of our segments. The campaign concluded and marketing was ready to share the results with segment leadership. The marketing team was clearly elated as they presented their numbers for reach, engagement and conversion, all of which exceeded standard KPI’s. They concluded with a summary of new members achieved through the campaign. 

I then asked what the value of each new member was to the company. Marketing didn’t know. Of course, segment leadership knew. We went through some quick calculations, adding up the value of each new member and average contract term. The value of all the new members acquired during campaign equaled approximately 15% of the marketing budget spent. In other words, marketing’s “successful” campaign – at least in terms of KPI’s – LOST the company $85,000.

The Path to Marketing and Sales Alignment

For marketing to win the heart of the sales organization, it needs to start by investing in the sales team’s goals, strategy and value messaging. It must deeply understand the target audiences and how they make purchase decisions. Marketing must know the products or services the company sells at a granular level. And they must know the value of a sale (whether that be a product, service, member or what-have-you) in order to interpret return on investment. 

Take a sales rep out for drinks, schedule a one-hour lunch and learn, attend sales meetings, read existing product brochures, anything to get to know the inner workings of sales.

Armed with this knowledge, marketing is more likely to recommend and develop meaningful initiatives that will improve the condition of the sales organization. Knowing the net operating gain of a sale will ensure that metrics related to marketing programs for sales will reflect the true ROI (net sales gain minus marketing cost). 

Then, schedule regular meetings to make sure initiatives and sales goals remain aligned. I’d recommend separate meetings for bigger projects to make sure everyone is singing from the same song sheet.

In turn, sales need to step up their engagement with marketing. Throwing an idea over the transom and expecting miracles is unrealistic. I don’t know how many times I’ve fielded a sales request for a marketing deliverable that seemed crystal clear until it wasn’t. “I need a box,” says sales. “Here’s your box,” says marketing. “No, no! Not that kind of box!!” A silly example, but hopefully you get my point. Marketing has to go back to the drawing board and everyone is frustrated. By taking the time to meet with marketing and allow an open exchange of ideas, the end product is bound to be superior. And sales need to stay engaged. Slow down and take the time to review marketing plans instead of waiting for the first design draft to focus.

Overwhelming marketing with requests is another area that does damage. Often, sales team members have a go-to contact in marketing. Sales reps and account managers tend to have many client-specific requests and when you multiply the number of requests it can really bog down the flow of work. Worse, that flyer or email may have a one-time need that the rest of sales doesn’t need. But, with a few tweaks, that same flyer could work for the requesting rep and everyone else on the team. Is there a better way to manage these requests?

Sales can also work on understanding and appreciating the value of brand. Because branding doesn’t always support lead generation for B2B organizations, there’s a tendency for sales to view brand as a bunch of external noise that doesn’t generate leads. Brand has a tangible impact on reputation and trust, perceived value, differentiation and customer loyalty. Brand is a huge asset during times of crisis. And brand supports all marketing efforts. Use it, reference it, include it in presentations. You’d be surprised what your clients and partners are taking in.

By aligning marketing and sales goals, businesses can create a more cohesive and effective revenue generation funnel. A willingness to collaborate and open communication will lead to a fruitful and less frustrating partnership.