Tweet

Marketing, sales and service silos why?

Written by: Sue Barrett

Article Overview: For people in the communications industry it is appalling that there is a lack of real communication occurring between their marketing and sales departments. All too often I see departments vying for budgets, leadership, ideas, etc. Some people believe marketing drives the engine and sales are irrelevant, or sales are king and what is marketing anyway? It's not just the sales people. Some organisations don't even know the difference between marketing and sales or don't see the connection between the two in the first place.

Marketing, sales and service silos why?

For people in the communications industry it is appalling that there is a lack of real communication occurring between their marketing and sales departments.

All too often I see departments vying for budgets, leadership, ideas, etc. Some people believe marketing drives the engine and sales are irrelevant, or sales are king and what is marketing anyway?

It's not just the sales people. Some organisations don't even know the difference between marketing and sales or don't see the connection between the two in the first place.

This causes all sorts of problems, the likes of which can include:

Marketing initiating a premature campaign and forgetting to tell the salesforce about it.

A new product is launched and sold aggressively by the salesforce, but faults surface with the product that can't be fixed and it has to be recalled.

Everyone who sees, talks with or comes in contact with a prospect or customer should understand exactly the functions of the promise-expectation-experience chain. In his book The New Science of Selling and Persuasion: How Smart Companies and Great Salespeople Sell, William T. Brooks highlights these very issues.

Sales, marketing and service departments must never operate in isolation! However this happens too often! Make sure both sales and marketing people have key performance indicators that include measures on how well the marketing and sales plans complement each other and how well the two divisions work together as a team. KPIs should also include making sure that the information the two divisions give each other about customer feedback is useful and acted on.

If the divisions are engaging in a silent war or openly fighting with each other, then the parties must be made to understand they are not doing their jobs properly. In this sophisticated world of communications, companies must work on integrated campaigns and there is no room for egos.

An inconsistent poorly defined sales, marketing and service strategy for the entire organisation results in an organisation fraught with finger pointing, blame, denial, backbiting, slippery revenues and reduced cash flow. What can make a difference is communicating and reiterating the strategy and position to all the internal teams who interface with prospects and customers

Make sure that people with sales experience understand the skills needed in marketing and that the marketing staff understand how crucial sales people are and the skills involved in prospecting and managing clients.

The problem is too many people operate only in their own self interest. When that happens, the customer loses and in the long term so does the organisation.

Vital question: Is your organisation made up of competing cultures?

Remember everybody lives by sellling something.

Related Articles
  "Drive ONE"
  What is a Seller\'s Priority?
  Breaking Out the Ruler: A Guide to Measuring PR Efforts
  Silos Belong on the Farm, Not in the Office: Effective Strategies for Sharing Information
  Silo Busting

Article Tags: communications companies, communications industry, customer feedback, egos, expectation, faults, isolation, key performance indicators, leadership ideas, new science, persuasion, sales and marketing, sales marketing, salesforce, salespeople, service departments, silent war, smart companies, sophisticated world, william t brooks



Related Forum Posts
Re: How do you overcome the fear of rejection while selling? - Great video Evan, I have not worked in direct sales in the none Internet world, always in the service sector but many years back I worked as service manager for a national brewer here in the UK and the sales manager was fond of telling all his team that they should get used to rejection, it is part of sales. My own take on this has always been that some will, some won't, so what, move on !!. I find this is very true with Internet Marketing and I never take any rejection personally as it is not me that customers are rejecting but what I am selling or the way that I am selling it and both of these things can be improved, regards, Mal.
Re: Usable Service? - It sounds like a good service. Marketing it would be the kicker. Getting the word out about what you do and adequately relaying the value of such a service could be a challenge. You have to be sure they know, without a doubt, why you are qualified to offer such a service. I would lead with the cost savings. Showing a return on investment gets attention. Just a thought.
Setting up a Patents Brokerage service - Hi Members, I currently run a website called patentsforsale.co.uk which is a site where buyers and inventors exchange mails and discuss the sales of inventions. To augment this service I am thinking of starting a company offering patent brokerage service. This will involve finding potential investors to buy patents and other intellectual property rights, hence charging a comission on a successful sale. This could mean earning quite healthy commisions and am looking for individual who have experience in the patent industry as well as business and sales to work with me to get this business started. Look forward to suggestions.
Patent brokerage venture advice - Hi Members, I currently run a website called patentsforsale.co.uk which is a site where buyers and inventors exchange mails and discuss the sales of inventions. To augment this service I am thinking of starting a company offering patent brokerage service. This will involve finding potential investors to buy patents and other intellectual property rights, hence charging a comission on a successful sale. This could mean earning quite healthy commisions and am looking for individual who have experience in the patent industry as well as business and sales to work with me to get this business started. Look forward to suggestions.
Patent brokerage venture - Hi Members, I currently run a website called patentsforsale.co.uk which is a site where buyers and inventors exchange mails and discuss the sales of inventions. To augment this service I am thinking of starting a company offering patent brokerage service. This will involve finding potential investors to buy patents and other intellectual property rights, hence charging a comission on a successful sale. This could mean earning quite healthy commisions and am looking for individual who have experience in the patent industry as well as business and sales to work with me to get this business started. Look forward to suggestions.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

How to Write Your Articles for Better SEO

Four Reasons Why Entrepreneurs Should Blog

How to Develop Your Powers of Thought.

Suggestions

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.