2011 Survey Results: Inhibitors to Sales Success

Back in 2008, I started a marketing alignment survey. One question I ask is, what are the ”inhibitors to sales success” at your firm. The top two inhibitors have remained the same over the past 3 years.  I believe the number one factor causing these issues to remain at the top of the list is a misalignment between sales and marketing, contributed by a company’s complex portfolio of product and services.

In a 2009 whitepaper on Account Based Marketing, I wrote about the impact of product complexity on sales:

A B2B sale tends to be a complex process for the provider and the client. Often the provider has multiple offerings, hundreds of messages to convey, and varying degrees of insight into specific prospect accounts. Confusion at the point of sale is typical when the salesperson presents too much information or emphasizes the wrong messaging, does not clearly differentiate the strengths of the provider and its solutions, and leaves the prospect puzzled about how a proposed solution will fit his/her unique situation.

The paper was written based on a project deliverable for an IT services company. They had a moderately complex portfolio based on discreet service lines aligned to industry specific business issues. Marketing determined “what their customers needed” through surveys and market research. The way marketing and sales worked together looked something like this:

The sales and marketing process was internally focused. They were hell-bent on articulating the value of their deliverables, their unique pricing models, and their thought leadership. Marketing gave the sales team messaging; value propositions and the price book and sent them on their way. Sales did not do a good job listening to the wants and needs of customers and prospects, and instead went in with mouths blazing with a standard sales pitch.

We moved them to an Account Based Marketing model that coupled the sales, marketing and delivery team together. Account-based marketing worked by providing targeted content relative to an individual account’s business issues. Sales, marketing and solution experts team-up internally to develop separate marketing plans for key accounts. At the heart of each marketing plan is the development and coordination of content that will resonate with the prospect. Account Based Marketing gets the client talking about their unique situation which allows the internal account team to develop a plan and content strategy to articulate business and technology value on how their firm was uniquely qualified to address their business issues.

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