Sales & Marketing Unaligned? One Party Owns the Fix—But Not The CEO

Posted by Dan McDade

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on Sep 22, 2010 11:57:00 AM

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Not the CEOIn this third and final blog in a series that has been reporting on who sales and marketing executives believe owns the fix for non-alignment issues, I present the comments of those who feel a single group or a single individual owns the fix.

Rather than identifying the CEO or collaboration between sales and marketing as non-alignment fixers, this third group—37% of all respondents—suggested the following individuals or single groups are responsible for sales and marketing alignment:

  • One VP to whom both sales and marketing report
  • Sales or the most senior sales executive
  • Marketing
  • An outside change manager

Here are their comments along with my lighter-side song titles for each group. In parentheses following each heading is the percentage of respondents who advocated this position.

One VP who oversees both sales and marketing (31%)

“The Long and Winding Road”—The Beatles

Several respondents suggested alignment issues should be resolved by a VP to whom the heads of sales and marketing report.

“The vice president of sales and marketing. If he doesn't exist, and these two functions report up independently, then there is very little chance they will perform coherently. The marketing team will inevitably want to do expensive trade shows, full-page color ads, and flashy brochures. They will want to do, in other words, what they know and what is fun for them. Sales guys, on the other hand, who know they will be fired if they don't make their targets, will focus on the real opportunities. If these two functions don't report to the same person, this rarely gets straightened out.”

“Perhaps it's time to not have two departments/functions but create a new, single unit with individuals tasked to perform different roles in the idea-revenue cycle.”

“Some other scenarios I've seen work include having an EVP in charge of both sales and marketing, and then teaming up sales and marketing (and SEs) into regional or vertical market silos. This puts pressure on both sales and marketing on an equal footing. It doesn't get rid of the natural progression towards finger pointing, but it often reduces it, because marketing is competing against marketing and the ‘team’ is the sales colleague.”

“This is why every company should have a VP of Marketing and Sales. It is the only way to align the objectives and consolidate the responsibility. When ‘they’ are your team members and ‘you’ have the same boss, pointing fingers is not an option. While the roles differ, the objectives are the same for both teams. There is no one for the VP to point fingers toward.”

Sales or the most senior sales executive (31%)

“Lean On Me”—Bill Withers

Executives in this group suggested the senior sales executive or sales should own the fix.

“I remember somebody saying that anytime there is a hole in a company process, with no ownership, sales steps in and take it. It might not be optimal but at least there will be an owner.”

“Unfortunately, this is a very recognizable situation. For me, the Director/VP of Sales owns the problem.”

“The last say SHOULD remain with the VP of Sales - they usually are responsible for corporate revenue. Marketing, without sounding condescending, should be a supportive role of those acquiring revenue.”

“Marketing should support and work for sales, not the other way around. Marketing should listen to the language used by sales and the language used by the buyers and then create sales supporting ideas/pieces that use this language to communicate the solutions the sales group can provide the customer.”

Marketing owns the fix (31%)

“Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)”—Eurythmics

Conversely, a few executives suggested that marketing should own the fix.

“Peter Drucker once wrote that the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. That means that marketing has got to know the customer requirements so well, has defined a product which exactly meets those requirements and has successfully communicated this to the customers that you don't actually need a salesperson to help the customer identify needs which will be solved by buying the product. The customers will see that for themselves if marketing gets it right. Therefore marketing needs to do the fix by doing their job so well that a salesforce does not exist. Generally 'marketing' has been unable to do their job that well, so sales exists.”

“Marketing owns the fix for a simple reason - it is in the interests of the head of marketing to prove that the marketing department is doing the job.”

“It’s marketing that would have the strategic vision and be the enabler (not subservient) to the sales teams. Let’s face it, sales is always numbers, meeting targets and the works. The enablers need to be given due credit if ‘consultative sales’ needs to succeed - especially in highly technical products/solutions.”

A change manager should be brought in to own the fix (7%)

“I Can See Clearly Now”—Roberta Flack

And one respondent suggested that an outside resource should be brought in.

“Whenever marketing comes up with something new to try and drive sales, and sales doesn't want to change their ways or accept something new, the CEO has a problem. Not with sales. Not with marketing. But with his entire organization, because those are the signs the company isn't able to adopt change and isn't flexible. Hire a change manager to do some cleanup work and restructure.”

I agree that it is going to take a Senior VP over both functions or the CEO to fix the lack of alignment in most companies. Depending on where that person grew up (sales or marketing), it may still take the CEO to reach a viable, effective and sustainable conclusion.

Regarding the recommendations that the fix should be owned by sales or the head of sales, a great mentor once told me, "You never go to war with the sales force because you are going to lose." Having said that, Sun Tzu says (I know, the average age of Sun Tzu proponents is deceased), "He whose ranks are united in purpose will be victorious." When the ranks are not united in purpose, you lose.

I want to express my appreciation to the sales and marketing executives who shared these insightful comments. The non-alignment of sales and marketing continues to negatively impact everything from demand generation to lead nurturing to closing sales-ready buyers, and these executives share a passion for addressing the issue.

I welcome your comments and feedback—both here and in the continuing discussion on the LinkedIn group forum.

Click here for Part 1: Sales & Marketing Unaligned? The CEO Owns the Fix
Click here for Part 2: Sales & Marketing Unaligned? Sales & Marketing Own the Fix Together
This blog is Part 3: Sales & Marketing Unaligned? One Party Owns the Fix—But Not The CEO

 

By Dan McDade


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Topics: Marketing & Sales Alignment


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