I was coaching a regional sales, service and parts distribution company in the roll-out years of PC-based networks. Corporate America was investing aggressively in this new technology but state and local governments were tracking behind the curve – partly due to heavy investments in mainframes and partly due to having IT staffs that arrogantly viewed pc networks as trivial.

My customer recruited an impressive list of their technology vendors to participate in a ‘network seminar day’ hosted at a conference center directly across from the state capital building in Lincoln, Nebraska. The logistics were impressive – several keynote presentation rooms supported with break-out topic rooms for more detailed discussions, buffets of food and beverages everywhere, dozens of topic experts on the agenda, etc.

Invitations were sent to literally hundreds of government contacts with no RSVP required – just walk over and learn everything you want to know about PC networks. We all arrived the day before the event to make sure everything was ready to go. Our expectations (and preparations) were for over 250+ people to attend.

The next day came and we were a bit shocked that our 8:30 am sessions were not as popular as we hoped – NO ONE showed up!  So we started working on the coffee and bagels to get ready for the 10 am rush when one of our techs walked in and dropped a critical piece of information on us.

The state offices were closed that day. Yup, a special Nebraska state holiday was underway and no one was at work. It was clear by 9 am that the day was a total bust and no one would be attending.

I suppose there are many lessons here, but proper preparation sure seemed like an appropriate one that day.  We simply assumed the government offices were open that day.  Not one of us did any sort of research on the calendar.

Another timeless sales truth – when you assume, you lose.

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.