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Failure of HQ & Sales to Communicate Effectively

Written by: Neil Mahoney

Article Overview: Sin #4 of the "9 Most-Deadly Sins in Sales & Marketing" is Failure of HQ & Sales to Communicate Effectively * HQ/Marcomm sees forests, not trees * Sales sees trees, not forests Perspective is everything in business and in everything we do. It's essential that Sales and Management agree on what's best for their customers -- and their company. They must start by agreeing on the best "Positioning Statement" they can make for their company. All messages the company conveys -- Mission Statements, Elevator Pitches, Ads, Websites, etc -- should all have their origins in the Positioning Statement. All parties must also agree that the Positioning Statement is the best message the company can make.

Failure of HQ & Sales to Communicate Effectively

Since Salespeople have a different, and often more realistic understanding of the individual customer's opinions and preferences than do senior management and Marcomm people do, salespeople must be part of the process in developing the all-important Positioning Statement for the company.

And since senior management and Marcomm people have a better understanding of the overall market and their company's relative strengths and weaknesses, they must objectively weigh their perceptions with that of the Sales Force.

Most senior managers don't recognize it, but Sales & Marcomm are not natural allies -- even though they all report to a common senior exec. Marcomm people are largely "creative people" who don't like facts to interfere with their great ideas and designs. Salespeople are on the line every day and hear mixed messages from customers and prospects. They often form their views on those things that are causing the most pain at the moment.

Just as the company's Mission Statement is supposed to be the touchstone to which everyone can return to in order to "center" themselves, a "Positioning Statement" is the essential element that helps a company create an effective:

* Mission Statement

* Elevator Pitch

* Communications Program

* Website and all forms of Sales Materials

Developing a Positioning Statement is not easy. It requires a lot of analysis and objective review-- and more review -- and still more review before everybody gets it right. Once you get an effective Positioning Statement that everyone agrees on the critical differences between Sales, HQ and Marcomm largely disappear.

Here are the steps you must take to arrive at a truly effective Positioning Statement:

A. Identify and agree upon your few, key markets & prospects, and their most-critical wants & needs -- bearing in mind that different markets often have different wants & needs.

B. Prioritize these key markets & prospects, as well as their most-critical wants & needs -- and agree on these priorities.

C. Evaluate your strengths & weaknesses in relation to your prospects wants & needs -- in line with their priorities -- and in relation to those of your competitors.

D. Determine your areas of true superiority based on this analysis.

E. Match your comparitive & demonstrable strengths to the wants & needs of your key markets & prospects.

F. Ensure you align your strengths to accord with the desires of the prospects.

G. Remember: A benefit in which you might have lesser superiority over the competition but is of more importance to the prospects will likely generate more sales than a benefit where you dominate, but is less important to the prospects.

H. Not until you've done all this are you ready to prepare your Positioning Statement.

I. The best Positioning Statements are those that begin: "The only. . ."

J. The best Positioning Statements are relatively short and consist of one sentence -- a sentence that readily trips off the tongue.

K. Once you've got it right, use it everywhere you can: Mission Statements, Elevator Pitches, Advertising, PR, Sales Materials, Websites.

The next installment of the "9 Most-Deadly Sins in Sales & Marketing" will be Sin #5: "Sales: The least time-effective process in all of Business."

Related Articles
  The 9 Most-Deadly Sins in Sales & Marketing
  Lesson #5: Communicate Success
  Sales and Marketing - Yin and Yang, or Oil and Water?
  Finding Your Starting Point
  Sales Training - Making it Stick!

Article Tags: amp, communications program, critical differences, elevator pitch, hq, marcomm, mission statement, mixed messages, natural allies, nbsp, perceptions, positioning statement, prospects, relative strengths, sales materials, salespeople, senior management, senior managers, strengths and weaknesses, touchstone



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