4 BIG Reasons to Align Your Sales and Marketing Organizations (or, Sales 2.0 + Marketing 2.0 = Smarketing = Business Success)

Over a year ago I took over the Sales and Marketing organizations here at Glance. The first thought that came to my mind was, “Cool: Smarketing!”

It’s been damn crazy ever since.

For all of you VPs of Marketing who look at Sales Management and say “…you have no clue what I am doing over here”; and, all of you VPs of Sales who return the favor: “…you have no idea what it takes to fill our funnel”; I am here to tell you that you are both right!

The predominant part of my career has been on the Sales side, so at the start of all of this, I naturally drifted towards the Sales mentality;  I hadn’t a clue, particularly in today’s world, how hard it is to generate leads; to put it my Sales Guys terms - it’s a bitch. 

And I don’t mean for the market-leading, well-funded, everyone-knows-your-brand companies -- I mean for the majority of us, the working stiffs; tied in more ways than one, to the promise of hitting it big. So if you’re reading this, and your focused on one or the other, I feel you man!

In all seriousness I would strongly recommend to any CEO, to break down the cubicles, be innovative, and build a Smarketing Department. Allow me to provide some insight as to how this approach has benefited Glance (and how it will benefit you):

1. Seamless Selling: As a SAAS company, it’s all about demand gen, downloads, and conversion rates. These functions are inseparable; our marketing message and our sales scripts must be one and the same. Integration of the two departments allows feedback to flow from customers mouths, to our sales ears, directly and immediately to our promotional minds; and then immediately back out to market via Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and the like.  There is neither gap nor debate about how, when, or why to respond. It is all simply seamless.
2. Cohesive Culture: Marketing sits intermingled within the Sales department here, each is part of the others' meetings. Marketing needs to understand the Sales effort, and Sales needs to understand the lead gen effort. For us, this cohesive Smarketing culture serves two distinct purposes: it removes ego, and it allows the lead gen side to understand the Sales world, i.e. the audience we are ALL selling to.
3. Fail Forward Fast: Decision-making is no longer hindered by opinion and ego; "what do the Sales Guys want", versus, "what do the Marketing MBA’s think"; of course there is some of that, there should be, its healthy; but in the end, because of our structure, the perspectives are not nearly as skewed as I have seen in a “standard” organization.
4. Mutual Respect: Let’s call a spade a spade: some Marketing folks think they are smarter than Sales people; we can change this by showing Marketing how difficult a day in the life of a Sales Pro can be. And with Sales, they hear the demands made by management, the sheer volume of work placed upon their Marketing cousins, and recognize that there is much more that goes into lead gen than meets the eye. Close physical proximity allows an upfront and personal experience in everyone's trenches, resulting in a deeper understanding and respect for all.

In the end, as the Sales 2.0 market comes into its “early majority” state;  we see marketing tools integrating with Sales, sales tools to marketing, seamless analysis of the entire cycle, social networks turning into business networks, and awards for top tools, top producers, and top influencers. The lines have blurred -- who can tell where marketing ends and sales begins anymore? Simply put, it’s come completely together -- so we have adjusted our internal functions to reflect the market, its interactions, expectations, and patterns.

Maybe we’re too smart for our own good, but no big deal, I can always blame the guy that runs Sales!

-- Tom Scontras, VP, Sales and Marketing

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Comments

[Steve Watts]

"Cultural alignment" of sales and marketing is one of the biggest challenges in business.

How do you get sales pros (typically hyper-competitive, management-fast-track-types) and marketing people (typically high energy, creative types) to see eye-to-eye?

How do you convince the marketing team with the brilliant, funny, witty, amazing ad campaign that simply isn't going to convert leads to change their minds?

As a marketing guy, I think about this all time, and I still need it drummed into me every so often--the purpose of marketing is lead generation and closed sales. Period.

Interesting post.

-Steve
InsideSales.com