Is Sales Irrelevant?

At the CLOSE Invention Summit on Monday we embarked on a discussion about the changing needs of buyers in today's purchase environment. It became clear that since buyers are now taking control of their buying process, it's more important than ever for marketing to ensure your company gets found. Right place, right time.

Nurturing is no longer a nice to have, but a must have—especially for a complex B2B sale. Buyers are now choosing to stay anonymous longer into their research. To get them to raise their hands for a sales conversation, they will need to have a lot of knowledge transferred about how to solve their problems...and how your products fit into that solution.

Because marketing is being charged with producing highly qualified leads, they now need to do more of the front-end lifting than they may have ever done in the past.

As we discussed what this means for marketing teams that are much smaller than many sales teams and are already dealing with a long list of deliverables, some of them asked if the cycles and responsibilities were shifting to the point that sales were becoming glorified order takers.

But that's a short-sighted view. And it's also one of the key reasons that marketing and sales must reach for closer alignment and collaboration on the end-to-end buying process.

When leads or inquiries were received, it used to be marketing's job to make sure they got to sales. Now, those leads and inquiries want education, high-value information and strategic insights before they decide to talk to sales. And, if they can't get that information from you, they'll go elsewhere - without a second thought.

But, lest marketing fret that sales is getting a breeze of a deal, their jobs have also gotten more difficult. Not only does sales have to be agile enough to step into a conversation in mid-stream without losing a beat, they have to reach way beyond product features and benefits to actually apply expertise in structuring solutions that get buyers where they want to go. It's not just about the product sale, it's about achieving a trusted-advisor partnership that becomes a long-term, loyal relationship—on both sides.

And that means that outcomes have to be spot on.

Therefore, it seems to me that both sides have grown in complexity. Marketing has to stretch their content and interaction strategies farther out and sales has to reach deeper into each and every situation to deliver high-enough value to get the deal.

Quite frankly, if both sides don't learn to help each other, pretty soon growth will stall and the disconnect in the buyer's process will be a noticeable bump in the road that will cause buyers to veer off in search of a better experience.

Here's why: The buying process is when your company is auditioning for the customer. If the experience that buyer has with you doesn't give them the feeling of satisfaction along with the visibility to envision the outcomes they want, then that buyer won't be willing to sign.

But, in answer to the question, sales is not irrelevant. They are very much needed, in fact, more so now than ever before. Same goes for marketing. Although roles may be shifting.

Comments

[Dale Underwood]

Ardath,
Fantastic comments. IMO the internet has enabled marketing to create a monster that feeds on its young. Without realizing it, competitive marketing groups have leap frogged each other, pushing web content to the limits and leaving nothing "on the bone" for sales to do.

Remember sales brochures? Replaced by online whitepapers

Remember sales presentations? Replaced by Webinars

Remember needing customer references? Replaced by Case Studies (and, Ugh, now video)

If it wasn't so pathetic I would almost laugh at how many marketers cheerfully hope that more content will somehow make prospects "stick". What could a prospect possibly need that would entice them to engage and fill out the "contact us" form of death?

There is only one thing left...budgetary pricing.

This and the immediate previous article couldn't have supported the need for EchoQuote any better.

Thanks for the thoughtful post. I hope I wasn't too harsh but the Emperor's clothes routine is getting old!

Dale

[Ardath Albee]

Hi Dale,

But, how do you really feel? LOL! You do get passionate!

Here's the thing - better content that's customer focused is a good thing. And the "meat" left on the bone for sales is the application of the company's products and expertise that gets the buyer to the outcomes that they want. The goals for buyers may be similar, but how they get there is the value-add that sales provides - hence a variation on the sales presentation you think has vanished. Plus, sales provides the face-to-face relationship, which is very important in a complex B2B sale.

Yes, pricing is important, but it's not the only thing left.

To push back on your other points - sales brochures are focused on products, white papers are focused on problem/solution scenarios. Two different things. Sales brochures were actually replaced by website content.

The best webinars are NOT sales presentations, but an extension of the problem/solution scenarios in white papers. Educational and thought provoking.

And testimonials are still used and, when used well, carry a lot of impact. Case studies, written well, can enable buyers to envision themselves solving problems similar to the customer spotlighted in the study. They provide validation that the company can actually deliver on all those promises they make and expectations they set.

So I think you've jumped the gun a bit on budgetary pricing being the only thing left. It's a helpful component, but I'd argue strongly that the other components also have value. It's all in how they're used.

Thanks for your comment, Dale. You always make me think.

Ardath

[Dale Underwood]

Ardath,
After re-reading my comments I think I misled you in my response. I did not mean there is nothing left for sales to do, I meant to say there is not much more to request from the manufacturer that would help the sales team engage the prospect. Prospects aren't going to contact and engage sales to have them "tell me how my business processes can benefit from your technology/service". I agree that is the area that sales needs to focus on but that means it is an outbound sales effort, not marketing related.

I think instead of sales and marketing alignment, there should be greater separation of roles with marketing getting back to basics and finding strong calls to action instead of encroaching on sales functions.

I thoroughly enjoy your posts and appreciate your positions...they make me think too and it has made me a better marketer.

BTW, I am still selling high-end technology everyday; we are doing face-to-face presentations each week. How do we find our prospects? Strictly from our inbound efforts using budgetary pricing as the "hook".

Check out FederalAppliance.com. Simple, Google like interface that does one thing and one thing only; it uses the promise of budgetary pricing as the Call to Action to capture prospects and start the sales process.

Dale