Recently I have been thinking about the relationship between sales and marketing. It is a relationship that is not new to me however I’ve realised it has definitely changed or shifted gear. This isn’t isolated to one organisation either, I’ve seen this across multiple organisations and in different industries. I believe it is mainly due to the digital age, in which the customer’s behaviour has changed and therefor the way marketing capture leads and filter them down the sales funnel to sales has also changed.

It is no longer in general a simple linear process of awareness through to; interest, trial and purchase like it perhaps once was. Instead customers are having many marketing moments which they are exposed to via many different mediums and sometimes at the same time. As customers today can be watching television on their laptop, with their phone on social media in one hand some direct mail or printed newspaper on the side table next to them. Their consumption patterns aren’t nearly as predictable as they once were, as each individual interacts with them differently. And each individual is on their own journey with each medium as some may have better usage skills, or a personal preference over another, has more access, or is more adaptable to a particular couple or few.  This makes it harder for sales to predict and understand the journey a potential lead may have been on prior to interacting with them. So today to really know ‘why’ and ‘how’ a lead came to them and what has raised their interest levels is hard. Customers are also so involved prior to a sale these days, as they have access to so much information via the internet that many times they are now one step ahead of the organisation or sales person. 1  As customers today often want to research the information independently via the internet or social media and or talking to friends before they contact the organisation especially for high involvement purchases (washing machine, car, house).

Sales and Marketing alignment is crucial for businesses today and if they are, sales are 67% better at closing deals. 2 It has in the past been an area Marketing have been responsible to bridge for Sales, by keeping them up to date with company marketing promotions and competitor activities so that if their customers ask them about it, they are across it and ready to respond. However today there is so much marketing activity going on for a company and or product online and offline that it is hard to keep sales up to date in real time and especially with the competitive landscape as it changes so quickly especially online. Hence you have companies like Bunnings and Dan Murphy’s empowering the customer to inform them, by offering cheaper prices if you see it elsewhere for cheaper. This is another strained area for Marketing and Sales to keep working on innovative ways to empower the customer, but remain profitable.

The other area that has caused a change in the sales funnel is self-serve options. Services where a customer can go and checkout by them-selves and not have that final up sell option at the end from a human, instead it is usually done via a computerised system thanks to e-commerce. So sales staff who aren’t serving online purchases, aren’t getting the rewards they may have got by up selling a suite with a shirt or cleanser with a moisturiser. Marketing instead works with Information Technology department and the relationship is between Marketing and Sales are under pressure. This calls for more nimble team structures with new leaders and digital age marketers who have deep analytical, digital engagement and content creative skills. 3 So Marketer’s today are really being called to step it up a notch and align more with not just Sales but other areas too.

How is your Sales and Marketing departments getting along these days?

Blog post by: Karin Forster

End notes

1.                    P.Strohkorb, The Lead Issue, Marketing Mag, Feb/Mar 2016. p.37

2.                    Jumpstart Revenue Growth with Sales and Marketing alignment, Marketo, 2015

3.                    S. Dholakia, Designing a marketing organisation for the digital age, Harvard Business Review, 2016. p.5.