Sales and Marketing Alignment

The biggest challenge in organisations has been the tension between sales and marketing. More and more, organizations are solving this issue and not just hitting revenue goals but exceeding them. The companies that are able to excel at this are the ones that put the buyer at the center of it all.  They work at being able to monitor and map how their customers go through their buying processes.

The 4 steps organizations can take to improve sales and marketing alignment are as follows:
 

1.    Alignment effort between Sales and Marketing from top management

Getting agreement from the CEO is the important first step. Sales and marketing alignment is a leadership issue. If you don't get the buy-in from the head of the company, trying to do this becomes an academic exercise.  And you'd be surprised how many CEOs aren't interested in the change of management exercise that makes up the backbone of really bringing marketing and sales into alignment.

2.    Effective Lead Generation from Marketing Team

Marketing executives want to be treated as equals to their sales counterparts.  If that is so, then they need to have their performance and compensation needs at a  similar level of variable compensation as their sales counterparts. There's a lot of resistance to this in the marketing world. The logic goes, "we can open the door to a lead, but sales has to close it." That's hogwash. Marketing can do a lot to affect lead volume, quality, velocity and close of business. If it means one less doodad they produce and get out in the field to help close, so be it. By paying marketing in part on closed business, the organization puts its money where its alignment is.

3. Report on the same metrics

It becomes more apparent with the advances in lead generation, nurturing and conversion that if sales and marketing aren’t playing with the same rule book, things can go south quickly. Stop problems before they start by making sales and marketing alignment a priority. Both departments should be working together throughout the whole sales process: from the criteria you create for a productive lead scoring system, through the touch points marketing engages in with prospects to a clean hand off to sales through continued communications to close. If you ask sales and marketing leaders what they report to the management team (or the Board), very often you'll get things like this from them:

a.    Marketing: downloads, names of trade show attendees, "touches" (unless you are in the spa industry, this probably isn't an important metric), web traffic, social media mentions

b.    Sales: closed deals, total revenue, opportunity pipeline, sales forecast, qualified leads

c.    Make sure the management team cares about, and talks about, the same measures.

4.    Develop a unified process

The collaborative development of a process is one of the core issues that causes the gap that exists in many organizations. Companies that excel at sales and marketing alignment have processes and procedures that are mapped to how their customers buy.  With marketing and sales working together to address:

a.    Data Management

b.    Lead Planning

c.    Lead Routing (SLA's)

d.    Lead Qualification (including scoring and definition of every stage of the funnel)

e.    Lead Nurturing

f.    Content Blueprint

g.    Metrics

With the integration of companies CRM systems and many companies implementing marketing automation, the ability for the two previously separate silos aligning into a unified process with performance metrics, companies are now able to manage a complete revenue cycle that is mapped to how their customers buy throughout their buying cycle.

 

For Detailed Information, Please Visit: Sales Management Training

Do Sales Training Really Help?

Research conducted by Revenue Storm during the Strategic Account Management Association Conference measured 100 Strategic Account Managers in 48 companies and showed they were 35% deficiency in allocating time to creating demand compared to Revenue Storm's best-in-class benchmark. One potential reason of spending less time in this critical area is the lack of competencies that Revenue Storm has identified; namely, managing pipeline, mapping politics, building momentum, establishing executive credibility, providing thought leadership, selling consultatively, messaging and probing. These competency deficiencies are further exacerbated when the market is like it is today.

In order to address these deficiencies, you could assess your sales force against the above competencies and develop specific training curricula to bring them up to best-in-class levels. From my experience, sales training is not enough. One approach would be to align the organization with the sales training initiative by starting with clarifying the Go-to-Market Strategy.
 
The Go-to-Market Strategy provides a direction not only for the sales force but also the rest of the organization. There are four Go-to-Market Strategies that companies can select. In fact, companies can deploy all of them, but each of the Go-to-Market Strategy needs to be aligned to each selling group. The four Go-to-Market Strategies are Transaction focus (example: low cost, commoditized offerings), Process focus (example: solution, one-stop shop selling), Business focus (example: business improvement), Partner focus (example: equal risk reward and gain sharing).
 
Once the Go-to-Market Strategy has been selected, sales process and sales roles including competencies need to be designed and aligned with the Go-to-Market Strategy. Sales management needs to be front and center in this step since they are the key role in successful implementation in the field. Sales management needs to be educated and trained so they can own and lead the implementation process.
 
Assessing the sales force against sales roles and competencies provides at least two important factors: fitting the right people into the right roles and identifying the competency deficiencies for each sales representative. Identifying the sales representative's competency deficiencies provides direction for both specific training and specific coaching from sales management.
 
Other functions need to be aligned to the Go-to-Market Strategy including Marketing, Delivery, Customer Service, Human Resources, Information Technology, Legal and Finance. All of these areas need to be educated and trained on the strategy. Marketing will need to provide specific inputs into sales such as developing market messages and customer case studies. Delivery and Customer Service outputs need to be aligned with the specific strategy. Human Resources function can assist with sales on assessment, hiring, selection and compensation. Information Technology manages the Customer Relationship Management application and needs to be aligned with the Go-to-Market strategy, not the other way around. Legal and Finance will also need to be aligned with the strategy. Large companies have a Sales Operations function that also assists and aligns the sales organization. When these functions are aligned with the Go-to-Market Strategy, the company will avert the often complaint from sales forces that it's much more difficult working with internal processes compared to working with customers.
 
This holistic approach starts with the Go-to-Market Strategy and purposely aligns all functions with the Go-to-Market Strategy. So it's not just about sales training, it's about building an aligned engine that can provide fast acceleration without the drag of sub-optimized, legacy, silo functions.

Advance’s Go-to-Market Strategy Programs are designed to give the learner comprehensive sales training and will provide essential training for new or less experienced sales professionals as well as the ideal means to refresh and update the skills of experienced sales professionals.

For More Information, Please Visit: Sales Training for Enterprises and Corporate

Sales Training Programs for New and Less Experienced Sales Professionals

Most times, salespeople fail when they have less than excellent prospecting skills and don't spend sufficient time improving their performance. If you are a broker who works alone you can invest in the large selection of sales and coaching books available. Provide detectable value to your clients and they will less likely perceive you as a salesperson and more likely as a valued resource.

Ultimately, prospects buy from individuals, remember it's all about relationships and coaching improves your relationship skills. Coaching teaches reps how to pick the best prospects, how to really sell their services, and how to practice good stress management techniques. It focuses on development and what's truly on a sales reps mind. Most reps don't spend time thinking, "How Can I Close Better," but think, "How can I make sure I'm not missing out on opportunities?"

Because of today's economy, many Sales Manager's think that their only option is to cut back on training and instead look to recruit sales professionals who, in theory anyway, already possess the necessary skills needed to do the job. However, most of those same Sales Manager's are discovering just how difficult it is to find skilled salespeople, who have all of the essential skills and personal traits. Also, it is not possible to equate experience or longevity with success. Any organization that hires only experienced salespeople and fails to provide them with proper sales training is setting itself up for disaster. The reality is that selling in today's climate is both an art and a science. Selling is a profession that demands a far wider range of skills than ever before, skills that require continual fine-tuning and constant practice.

Consistency Is Key. Ongoing reinforcement and development is essential for success. The operative word here is "ongoing". Even if salespeople have undergone progressive sales training, there's no guarantee that they will be successful. It is common knowledge that skills grow rusty over time and salespeople are prone to pick up bad habits along the way or to simply skip steps and take shortcuts that can lead to long-term trouble. Even more important is the fact that markets, competition, technologies, and customer preferences are all in a constant and accelerating state of change. This fact requires that sales people are able and willing to rethink their sales approach frequently and receive regular skills and motivational coaching. Sales training generates goodwill and concrete skills that forge a path of excellence for your reps to follow.

Advance’s Sales Training Programs are designed to give the learner comprehensive sales training and will provide essential training for new or less experienced sales professionals as well as the ideal means to refresh and update the skills of experienced sales professionals.