Predictions: What Lies Ahead for Sales and Marketing
Predictions: What Lies Ahead for Sales and Marketing
**Sales and Marketing are going to be run more like their Manufacturing, Finance, and Operations counterparts.**
Here is how this is going to play out.
Manufacturing has a set of best practices such as ISO and 6-Sigma to improve the effectiveness of the manufacturing process, e.g., higher yields and lower fallout. These processes are then supported by a host of software automation tools such as MRP, ERP, etc.
Finance has a set of best practices such as FASB and Sarbanes-Oxley to improve the financial effectiveness of the company and its financial statements. There is also a host of financial software automation tools to support and improve the effectiveness of the supporting processes.
Operations has yet another set of best practices and software automation tools to support and improve the effectiveness of its processes.
But when you look at the sales and marketing departments, what do you see? You dont see the same process excellence or discipline. Whats missing are a formalized set of best practices and the needed software solutions for improving the effectiveness of how these departments generate customers, revenue, and profits.
This is the big change. The Board and the CEO are going to push even harder on Sales and Marketing to deliver a more effective customer/revenue/profit generation process.
**The Board and the CEO are going to push even harder on Sales and Marketing to deliver a more effective customer/revenue/profit generation process.**
They will want Sales and Marketing to be more aligned around this imperative in order to extract more profit from their sales and marketing investments, and to gain a core competitive advantage.
What this looks like for Sales goes way beyond sales training. Companies are documenting and aligning their customers buying processes with their own sales processes, that is, they are documenting the series of conversations or steps that need to occur in order to walk a prospect through the buy/sell process. They are then aligning the appropriate customer messaging, marketing collateral, and sales tools with these revenue generation processes.
Then theyre overlaying new sales automation solutions that help Inside Sales, Field Sales and Channel Partners quickly find and rate these tools; share best practices; and support, enforce, and track these processes. Its a big shift. Whats occurring is that the art of selling is being forced to work in the context of sales as a core business process which is the right thing to do.
Marketing is feeling great pressure in this area, too. Marketing ROI and marketing automation are hot topics. Marketing is figuring out how to justify its expenses and tie them to bottom line contributions. They are also implementing methodologies and tools to better align product development investments with helping customers solve meaningful business challenges. They are developing formal processes for demand generation, lead quality, and conversions. They are figuring out how to get better alignment with Sales, such as how to create, produce, and manage more effective deliverables. This means that customer messaging, marketing collateral, sales tools, demand generation activities, and field training are considered integral by Sales in helping it grow the pipeline and win more business.
**The art of marketing and selling is being forced to work in the context of core business processes.**
One of the few true breakthrough innovations that is helping Sales and Marketing make this transition is integration of sales messaging. It includes the acknowledgement of sales messaging as a distinct and crucial customer messaging category, a methodology for creating and deploying great sales messaging, and an objective set of principles for evaluating customer messaging quality prior to testing and launch. Its the one process improvement that makes a meaningful increase in sales and marketing effectiveness, quickly.
For example, Agilent Technologies used sales messaging as a tool to improve the effectiveness of the competitive training developed by Marketing and delivered to Sales. The result: 60% of the sales reps were able to close at least one additional deal in the sales quarter after the training, because of the effectiveness of the new training. The annualized ROI was astronomically high since the same investment generated substantially more revenue.
The Sales and Marketing leaders who recognize the imperative to drive greater process excellence into their organizations will thrive and will position themselves for greater leadership roles. They will also make a significant contribution to improving their professions reputation for being highly relevant to accelerating the growth of profitable revenue and market share.
Predictions What Lies Ahead for Sales and Marketing - To learn more about this author, visit Michael Cannon's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
As companies shift their strategic focus for improving profitability from cost cutting to growing revenues and market share and to gaining/sustaining competitive advantage, the impact of this change is going to affect Sales and Marketing the most. There is going to be a lot more pressure on these departments to be run more like their Manufacturing, Finance, and Operations counterparts.
**Sales and Marketing are going to be run more like their Manufacturing, Finance, and Operations counterparts.**
Here is how this is going to play out.
Manufacturing has a set of best practices such as ISO and 6-Sigma to improve the effectiveness of the manufacturing process, e.g., higher yields and lower fallout. These processes are then supported by a host of software automation tools such as MRP, ERP, etc.
Finance has a set of best practices such as FASB and Sarbanes-Oxley to improve the financial effectiveness of the company and its financial statements. There is also a host of financial software automation tools to support and improve the effectiveness of the supporting processes.
Operations has yet another set of best practices and software automation tools to support and improve the effectiveness of its processes.
But when you look at the sales and marketing departments, what do you see? You dont see the same process excellence or discipline. Whats missing are a formalized set of best practices and the needed software solutions for improving the effectiveness of how these departments generate customers, revenue, and profits.
This is the big change. The Board and the CEO are going to push even harder on Sales and Marketing to deliver a more effective customer/revenue/profit generation process.
**The Board and the CEO are going to push even harder on Sales and Marketing to deliver a more effective customer/revenue/profit generation process.**
They will want Sales and Marketing to be more aligned around this imperative in order to extract more profit from their sales and marketing investments, and to gain a core competitive advantage.
What this looks like for Sales goes way beyond sales training. Companies are documenting and aligning their customers buying processes with their own sales processes, that is, they are documenting the series of conversations or steps that need to occur in order to walk a prospect through the buy/sell process. They are then aligning the appropriate customer messaging, marketing collateral, and sales tools with these revenue generation processes.
Then theyre overlaying new sales automation solutions that help Inside Sales, Field Sales and Channel Partners quickly find and rate these tools; share best practices; and support, enforce, and track these processes. Its a big shift. Whats occurring is that the art of selling is being forced to work in the context of sales as a core business process which is the right thing to do.
Marketing is feeling great pressure in this area, too. Marketing ROI and marketing automation are hot topics. Marketing is figuring out how to justify its expenses and tie them to bottom line contributions. They are also implementing methodologies and tools to better align product development investments with helping customers solve meaningful business challenges. They are developing formal processes for demand generation, lead quality, and conversions. They are figuring out how to get better alignment with Sales, such as how to create, produce, and manage more effective deliverables. This means that customer messaging, marketing collateral, sales tools, demand generation activities, and field training are considered integral by Sales in helping it grow the pipeline and win more business.
**The art of marketing and selling is being forced to work in the context of core business processes.**
One of the few true breakthrough innovations that is helping Sales and Marketing make this transition is integration of sales messaging. It includes the acknowledgement of sales messaging as a distinct and crucial customer messaging category, a methodology for creating and deploying great sales messaging, and an objective set of principles for evaluating customer messaging quality prior to testing and launch. Its the one process improvement that makes a meaningful increase in sales and marketing effectiveness, quickly.
For example, Agilent Technologies used sales messaging as a tool to improve the effectiveness of the competitive training developed by Marketing and delivered to Sales. The result: 60% of the sales reps were able to close at least one additional deal in the sales quarter after the training, because of the effectiveness of the new training. The annualized ROI was astronomically high since the same investment generated substantially more revenue.
The Sales and Marketing leaders who recognize the imperative to drive greater process excellence into their organizations will thrive and will position themselves for greater leadership roles. They will also make a significant contribution to improving their professions reputation for being highly relevant to accelerating the growth of profitable revenue and market share.
Predictions What Lies Ahead for Sales and Marketing - To learn more about this author, visit Michael Cannon's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
|||
David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
|||
Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
|||
Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals. Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nations Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
|||
John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firms clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
|||
George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
|||
Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
|||
John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a hands-on franchise consultant. He said, I am the nuts and bolts person who tends to the details for my clients. Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to Michael's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 | |
|
| |
 | ||
|
||
 |
||
 |
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
 |
 Ezine Choices Choice of Forum Disappearing Leader Managing Growth Memorandum Template 1 |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 Franchising Blogs
Top 50 Franchising Blogs | |
 |
Top 50 SEO Posts - 2008
Top SEO Posts of the Year | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
| ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||