Slide 1:1 Aligning Sales and Marketing Today 1 Workshop Leaders: John Kratz – jkratz@visiongroupmn.com Ken Jondahl – kjondahl@visiongroupmn.com


Workshop Topics :2 Workshop Topics Tactical take-a-ways from “Smart Selling in Tough Times.” Why is sales and marketing alignment important? Aligning sales and marketing “messaging" around your customer’s compelling needs. How to make your messaging stick with customers/prospects. 2


Smart Selling in Tough Times- Recap :3 Smart Selling in Tough Times- Recap Buying decisions are taking longer Decisions are moving higher in organizations Aim your marketing campaigns higher at both new and existing customers Have an aligned sales and marketing process to work with buying committees Smart Selling in Tough Times, Duluth B2B Expo, Mar 2009 3


How Bad is it Really? :4 How Bad is it Really? “An economic downturn is a terrible thing to waste!” 4


Why Sales and Marketing Alignment is Important? :5 Why Sales and Marketing Alignment is Important? Grew 5.4% faster year-over-year than their competitors. Churned 36% fewer of their customers to competitors each year Were 38% better at closing proposals than non-aligned businesses. A 2005 Survey of 1400 marketing professionals from 84 countries indicated those businesses which report the greatest success in aligning Sales and Marketing: /www.marketingprofs.com/marketing/research 5


Slide 6:*Customer Message Management Forum American Marketing Association “Up to 90% of sales collateral created by marketing is never used by sales.” This forces sales people to develop “messaging” on the fly Bad things happen when sales and marketing are not aligned…… Customer Message Management Forum, American Marketing Association


Shouldn’t These Be Consistent? :Shouldn’t These Be Consistent? Marketing Messages = Sales “When they are not consistent, the burden of positioning your offerings falls, by default, on the shoulders of salespeople.” Mike Bosworth, founder Solution Selling and Customer Centric Selling


Common Sales and Marketing Issues :8 Common Sales and Marketing Issues Our sales and marketing departments are not on the same page We outsource our marketing communications to an agency I’m a small business – “I wear both hats” The majority of our marketing collateral is not used by sales Our marketing messages don’t seem to be connecting with our prospects Other compelling issues? 8


Presentation Paradigms :9 Presentation Paradigms Disqualify vs. qualify your leads It’s not about “IT”, it’s about what you can do with “IT” 9


Slide 10:10 Strategic vs. Tactical Marketing 10


Tactical Marketing vs. Sales :11 Tactical Marketing vs. Sales 11


Where Do You Lose the Race? :Where Do You Lose the Race? 12 Marketing gets measured on quantity of leads while sales is measured on the quality of leads Without a formal definition of what is a qualified lead, organizations will struggle with issues between sales and marketing Aberdeen Group, Best Practices Sales Marketing Alignment, Dec 2008


Presentation Paradigms :13 Presentation Paradigms Disqualify vs. qualify your leads! It’s not about “IT”, it’s about what you can do with “IT” 13


What Are Aligned Businesses Doing? :14 What Are Aligned Businesses Doing? More likely to qualify leads prior to passing on to sales Measure marketing on % of leads sales converts to meetings Marketing is more likely to use press releases and white papers as key tactics www.marketingprofs.com/marketing/research 14


Most Relevant Content For Prospects? :Most Relevant Content For Prospects? 15 Specific industry (82% found this significantly or somewhat more valuable) Job function (67% found this significantly or somewhat more valuable) Company size (59% found this significantly or somewhat more valuable) MarketingSherpa, B2B Marketing Benchmark Report 2009-10


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Slide 17:Aligning Sales and Marketing is Driven by Three Main Areas 17


Slide 18:18 Would you choose 500 GB for $109 or 1000 GB for $119, both are plug and play USB? Is it the product features or the usage which determines your final choice?


Presentation Paradigms :19 Presentation Paradigms Disqualify vs. qualify your leads It’s not about “IT”, it’s about what you can do with “IT” 19


Take Away Considerations :20 Take Away Considerations Align sales and marketing around: common sales process common language how your customers make buying decisions Focus your product/feature messages on your customers compelling needs driven by value Convert product “features” to product “usage” 20


Questions? :21 Questions? 21