Moe Revenue

New Year’s Resolution to the Marketing vs. Sales Conundrum

The confusion over the roles of marketing and sales in the revenue cycle has been in play for decades. Sales claims they never get enough ‘good’ leads from Marketing and Marketing says they generate more than enough leads to make the budget if Sales only knew how to sell. This dysfunctional relationship progresses to a point where Marketing throws the leads “over the wall” to Sales and both groups continue to complain about the other.

So, here are the definitions of responsibility I use with clients today:

Marketing herds (as in shepherds) contacts to the business. These are entered as suspects in your CRM database.

Sales harvests those contact opportunities by moving them from suspect to prospect to customer through the Differentiating Value and Critical Qualifying Questions process.

When Marketing is herding (advertising, web, special promotions, trade shows, etc.) suspects, it is critical they base their efforts on the Differentiating Value(s) of the promoted products or services. This introduction positions Sales to jump start the Critical Qualifying Question process based on what the suspect has already learned or discovered about your Differentiating Value.

You will know the model is working when sales and marketing managers agree on what each suspect should know – or at least be exposed to – as part of getting into the pipeline database. Differentiating Value is the common denominator for both herding and harvesting efforts and can create a seamless handoff opportunity between Marketing and Sales functions.

I want to thank all our of our clients, associates and friends for their business and support this past year. All of us at CRO Success wish you a happy holiday season and much success in 2010.

See you next year.