Sales Skills Creativity – Aligning the stars of Sales and Marketing
Join Drew Stevens PhD as he is interviewed by Linda Popky of L2M Associates to discuss how to increase sales in a difficult economy.We discuss a wealth of issues and how to overcome them by breaking the silos to get sales and marketing to co-exist.
Here is a brief description of our discussion:
Conceptually sales and marketing departments have different philosophies and different cultures. Marketing continually blames sales if revenue falters and sales blames marketing for poor development. A classic case is a firm that spent almost $300,000 on a trade booth. Marketing helped to create a stellar eye-opening booth but not one sale was attributed to the show. The most imperative culture issue is that marketing believes that selling professionals are too focused on meeting customer budget not needs and sales believes that marketing is out of touch with client issues.While the two groups are working towards a similar goal, client acquisition, both follow opposing paths to achieve the same result. In order to refrain from conflicts and to achieve efficiency in the process, culture must change. Selling culture is achieved from sales closure; marketing culture is attuned to programs. Based on recent research with several clients, aligning the culture reduces conflict and speeds efforts. Further recent 2007 surveys illustrate that average quota attainment is below 60%; forecast accuracy hovers at 50/50 requiring a better method to achieve selling efficiency and who better to help than the marketing department.
In order to help augment culture, influence is required. Sales and marketing behaviors are influenced by both beliefs and attitudes. Once behaviors change, departments enact interdepartmentally, sharing responsibilities and becoming more strategic with accounts and more importantly eliminating the fences that divide.
Listen to this fabulous eye opening session and gain new insight.
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About Drew Stevens
Drew Stevens helps individuals dramatically accelerate business growth. Drew has built four profitable and growing businesses during three economic downturns. Drew’s coaching and mentoring you with a return on investment never to look back!
About Linda Popky
Linda Popky is the founder and president of L2M Associates, Inc., a strategic marketing company that helps organizations dramatically improve their bottom line by more effectively leveraging their investments in marketing programs, processes, and people. She can be reached at http://www.l2massociates.com/
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