What happens when marketing and sales don't talk

If this experience doesn't highlight the need for marketing and sales to communicate, I'm not sure what will. But, one thing I do know, experiences like what I just encountered do more harm than good. And, they happen more often than you think.

I received an email from a PR firm representing the launch of a new technology product  asking if I'd like to discuss or blog about it. The email contained interesting facts about the product and information about the company and actually gave me a couple of weeks lead time prior to the launch. Most appreciated.

The technology they wrote about spawned ideas for improving marketing engagement that intrigued me, so I went out to take a look at their website. I downloaded a white paper, the only one available on the new product pre-launch. It left me with questions so I hit reply and asked the PR person who'd contacted me.

My ISP soon notified me that there was no such host and returned the email. I took another look at the email I'd received and noticed that the email address bore no relationship to the sig line of the text. Big mistake. Disappointed, I filed it and  moved on.

This morning I received a nice follow-up email from the company's Director of  Sales who'd tracked my white paper download. So I replied, explained what had happened and asked for clarification. Aha, I thought. A chance for redemption - because I really did like the product.

His response was "This has nothing to do with our company." Then he went further and wrote, "I’ve never been one to pay attention to spam or blogs."

Ouch. A bit brutal for a Monday morning (any morning, actually). But now he had my back up a bit. So I retrieved the PR firm email and clicked through to their website. On the homepage is a raving testimonial from the CEO of the Director of Sales' company.

Oops. Somebody got left out of the loop. Not to mention insulted a blogger who was excited about their new product and is still trying to be. But it's hard. And see, I feel like telling all of you about how badly this experience was handled. Both by the PR firm and by the Director of Sales of that company.

It also feels strange that a Director of Sales for a company promoting a marketing engagement tool is so out of touch with social technology. The Director of Sales has apologized and admitted that "others may find blogs useful." He'd like to move past that. Um. Still not feeling warm and fuzzy. Just received another email - he's going to get to the bottom of it and "if this is, in fact, one of our distributors," he admitted the process needs work.

Somehow I think he still thinks I'm making it up.

But, here's my biggest problem: I like the technology and  I'm trying to be forgiving about this because I think the product is pretty cool and could produce some fantastic results for a client's project.

Although this experience is stuck in my mind. I want to move past it, but I know I'm just waiting for a reason to put a hard stop on my willingness to engage with that company. Ask yourself how often buyers have the time and inclination to be so nice.

Why the heck hasn't he apologized profusely and immediately promised to get to the bottom of it? Well, it's apparent that he's unwilling to take a hit for the team. He's bound and determined that he's right and that this is someone else's fault - well, if it's actually true. To the point that he's given up on engaging with me and gone off on a finger-pointing mission.

Beyond this experience, what this really made me think about is the kind of experience sales is providing to marketing-generated leads if they have no insight to what the communication, conversation or experience has been like to date. Handling the hand-off badly could spell disaster for opportunity conversion. It's likely your buyer can get the same product (or similar) somewhere else.

Although this type of exchange could be one reason that marketing-generated leads are seen as low quality. If sales turns buyers off because they abruptly enter the relationship and disrespect what's gone on before their arrival, then there's a huge disconnect that needs to be reversed. And a lot of waste. And some collateral damage to your brand.

Not that this is the only issue, but it's one heck of a good reason for marketing and sales to pick up their bi-directional communication and play better together. The concept that "information is power" is pretty much right on the money.

**NOTE: I decided against naming the company as I don't do that kind of thing very often. I'm more interested in pointing out the issues failure to communicate can cause and in helping marketing and sales processes improve.

Comments

[cougarmark]

Sounds pretty awful and like it gave you a Monday Morning Headache - the worst.

In reality this happens more often than we would like to admit.

Hopefully its not in our companies but if so we need to fix it fast.

And blogging - the guy is clearly out of touch with the real world.

cougarmark

[Tony Zambito]

This is a real world illustration of how out of touch marketing and sales can truly be! The thing that makes this worse is how the "attitude and beliefs" of someone like the Director of Sales can ultimately do the collateral damage to the brand you speak of. Thus, negating the efforts of marketing. There is a long way to go on this issue! Thanks for sharing!

Tony Zambito

[Ardath Albee]

Thanks Tony and cougarmark!

Funny thing is that he's now sending me "sales" emails trying to get me to sell the product to my clients. He's totally overlooked the exchange and the idea that the whole thing began with an invitation to blog about their product - not to become an affiliate sales rep, which is what he's now pushing. Yikes!

So the "collateral damage," as Tony suggests, continues.

Ardath