(this is a guest post by Taylor Mitchell of our sister program for Sales executives, the Sales Executive Council. It originally appeared on their blog.)

A fundamental shift in customer buying behavior has created a rift where Sales and Marketing have traditionally engaged customers. This void in the purchase process where customers are free from supplier engagement, a “no-man’s land” so to speak, has several implications on what successful selling looks like in today’s environment, but one of the more immediate concerns is that most suppliers haven’t fully recognized the shift has even occurred

This lack of awareness could partly be blamed on the fact that there is significant internal confusion in supplier organizations over the ownership of certain commercial responsibilities. Data from the MLC’s Commercial Integration Diagnostic illustrates that companies don’t have a good sense of which function, Sales or Marketing, owns some of the most important commercial activities—almost 70% of the member companies surveyed were unsure of who owned the insight generation responsibility, for instance.

As such, many sales organizations lack the scalable organizational support reps need to successfully sell in today’s environment, and are therefore leaving individual reps to do much of the heavy lifting themselves.

What makes matters even more difficult for sellers, and sales organizations alike, is the fact that buyers are not contacting suppliers until they are, on average, 57% of the way through their purchase process —meaning they have already determined their needs, completed due diligence, and have even begun to do some comparison shopping.

Given that this emerging commercial rift or “no-man’s land” is essentially enabling customers to make purchase decisions without supplier influence, it is all the more important that suppliers alter their strategies to drive customer engagement at the earliest, most formative stages of a sale and shape customer demand.

The SEC is focusing on just this in our forthcoming 2012 research. Initial findings suggest that the best companies are developing an organizational capability spanning both marketing and sales to generate unique insight, develop scalable commercial messaging based of that insight, and to generate leads/select opportunities based on customer receptiveness to that insight. By doing so, these companies are able to successfully support their sellers in engaging customers early and shaping their demand.

What is your organization doing to tackle no-man’s land and increasing buyer sophistication? Does developing an organizational capability to generate unique insight and support sellers sound like the right approach to you?

With more than 235,407 “Likes” on its official global Facebook page and the title of “the world’s best-selling stout,” it is clear that Guinness, owned by parent company Diageo, is loved around the world. More specifically, Guinness is a local and regional favorite not only in its original country of Ireland, but also in surrounding Europe.  In fact, up until recently, European sales accounted for the largest market of Guinness consumption.  However, after seeing declining sales, Guinness has recently shifted its focus to emerging markets, such as Africa, to re-stimulate its net sales.

In an effort to channel Africa’s love of soccer into a greater love for Guinness, the beverage company created “The Guinness Football Challenge,” a TV game show that incorporates physical challenges with trivia in a competition to win prizes.  First kicked off in Kenya, the television program is expanding to Ghana and Cameroon in hopes of turning passionate soccer fans into Guinness fans as well.  So, besides sponsoring the game show, how did Guinness actively engage its audience?  Simple.  Before the first 10-episode season of the popular African game show aired, Diageo handed out Guinness bottles during filming that contained a text code under the cap.  Not only was the audience given beer (read: free beer!), but users could then text in for a chance to win a lump sum of money.

It was a win/win situation for Guinness.  The company was able to deliver its product into the hands of consumers quickly and efficiently, while at the same time capturing phone numbers of users that texted in and storing them in a consumer database.  Diageo also maintained its “Reach for Greatness” slogan and brand message for Africa to allow consumers to easily recognize the brand and to help Guinness easily transition from an old campaign to a new one.

As with any mobile marketing initiative, however, Diageo also faced risks in implementing its “Guinness Rollout.”  To see these risks, along with the final results of the campaign and other campaigns, visit our Mobile Marketing Resource Center.

I’m occasionally stunned by the depth of our members’ knowledge of the marketing space. Last week, when we got a question in our Marketing Org & Ops Forum about corporate museums, I assumed the question was too specific or too obscure to warrant a big response.

I was wrong. Read More »

Running a brand campaign, specifically on TV and outdoor, can greatly benefit an organization if done right. So how do marketing teams measure whether the money spent on the ad campaign was worth it? One executive poses this question in MLC’s Marketing Org & Ops Forum, asking “How can we best measure the ROI and what metrics are normally used to measure the brand campaign success, internally and externally?” Read More »

No matter how big or small your company may be, chances are that some of its operations are performed out of house.  Whether it is more beneficial in terms of cost, or simply because you prefer an agency’s work, partnerships with area-specific companies (i.e. web development, creative design) can be a huge asset.  So then what would happen if these out of house agency partners were brought in-house?  One executive poses this question in our recently launched Marketing Org & Ops Forum, asking “Does your company have any agency services in-house, and if so, which ones?” Read More »

While the English language is certainly a common denominator in the business world, assuming everyone speaks it is definitely ill-advised.  So how does a marketing team ensure its product materials are accurate in another language?  One executive poses this question in our recently-launched Marketing Org & Ops Forum, asking “What are the best practices in assessing the quality and correctness of translation service jobs?” Read More »

Often times in an organizational structure, the approval chain of command can be quite unclear.  Logically, the CEO would make all the executive decisions, and the CMO would sign off on all marketing decisions.  But is it really efficient or even necessary for the big cheese to approve everything the company makes in his or her respected department?  Seeing as there are more than likely bigger fish to fry, it probably isn’t. 

Questions about organization structure are very popular in our recently-launched Marketing Org & Ops Forum, where one executive question asks, “What type of communications get what type of approval?”

Read More »