Wide Angle

American Idol has dominated the airwaves for a number of years now.  While Simon Cowell’s outrageous lambasting of singing hopefuls is a draw for some, sales reps and marketers should pay attention for another (somewhat surprising) reason: Idol’s crowdsourcing of talent through multi-round competition is a powerful way to improve the delivery of your sales pitch. Sound far-fetched?  Stay tuned… Read More »

B2B marketers spend a lot of time churning out content—white papers, collateral, podcasts, online tutorials, etc.—but production is only half of the equation.  Marketing also needs to consider how customers actually consume the content it generates.  The goal isn’t to just provide product information; it’s really a balancing act between this and setting the buying cycle in motion.  Sequencing becomes critical in that the consumption of materials needs to gradually lead customers closer to the point of sale.

We typically see three modes of content delivery: Read More »

MLC has long extolled the virtues of “commercial teaching”—i.e., providing insight to customers in a way that makes them better appreciate your distinct value.  Despite our obvious marketing bent, our past research has perhaps inadvertently implied that the delivery of these insights comes down to a “moment of truth” between sales reps and the customer.  We’ve tended to focus on ways that Marketing can support Sales in this interaction, everything from working together to craft a teaching sales pitch to tools that reinforce key teaching points after the rep has performed the heaving lifting.

The rep interaction undoubtedly plays a crucial role in many purchase decisions; in fact our sister program, the Sales Executive Council, has put plenty of time into understanding the specific rep skills and manager characteristics that make this teaching effort most effective. Read More »

When it comes to buzzword bingo about the issues B2B marketers care about most, “customer loyalty” makes a pretty strong showing.  It’s no secret that—on average—cross-sales to existing customers are much more profitable than new business acquisitions.  And even as we inch our way closer toward economic recovery, it’s heartening to know that current customers present the best opportunity for profitable growth in any economic environment.

MLC has spent a significant amount of time on the loyalty question, trying to understand what companies with high levels of customer loyalty do that’s so much better than the rest of the pack.  We’ve surveyed marketers, we’ve surveyed sales reps and sales managers, and, perhaps most critically, we’ve surveyed B2B customers. 

Interestingly, the data all points to one resounding conclusion: Read More »

One of my favorite analogies about the evolving dynamic between sales and marketing involves a comparison of golf and basketball (thanks, Sales 2.0 for Dummies!).  In traditional sales- or technology-driven organizations, Marketing often takes on the role of the golf caddie, setting up the shot that Sales takes with customers to land the deal … the figurative hole-in-one.

But a lot has changed in recent years, leading many B2B organizations to question this somewhat subservient relationship.  It’s no question that the purchase funnel has grown in complexity, requiring that reps demonstrate an increasingly deep level of customer understanding as they engage with more and more stakeholders to close every buying decision.  At the same time, we’ve seen an explosion in the number of collaborative technologies available to sales and marketing teams, making possible huge advantages to those companies able to get the right information to the right individuals at the right time. Read More »

Sales and marketing leaders constantly look for ways to build greater alignment between their two functions.  But efforts to enact joint planning or sync activities across the purchase funnel stall right out of the gates if the two functions don’t first develop a shared view of the customer.

This may sound like an obvious first step but, more often than not, Sales and Marketing aren’t on the same page when it comes to having a common understanding of customer needs.  We often hear tales of Sales accusing Marketing of being notoriously slow and impractical when analyzing customer needs, while marketers argue that Sales “manages by anecdote” and misses broader trends across segments. This tension ultimately hampers the organization’s ability to truly meet customer needs and capture new opportunities as they appear in the marketplace. Read More »

Sales and Marketing leaders don’t typically agree on a whole lot, but they’re certainly on the same page when it comes to messaging: it matters, and we’re not doing a great job at getting it right.  When there’s little message consistency across the different interactions with the company, customers lack a clear understanding of why they should choose one company’s products or services over another’s. Read More »

Early results from our commercial integration diagnostic have been telling: fewer than 30% of sales and marketing leaders believe their company’s messages to customers are consistent and reinforce one another.

If that doesn’t startle you, it should.  As the number of different information outlets continues to explode, B2B companies must treat every interaction as a critical opportunity to convince customers of their unique value.  Everything—from the sales pitch to marketing collateral to corporate communications—is a chance to hammer home what differentiates you from the next guy.  And the more consistent you can be across channels, the more likely customers are to internalize this differentiated mantra.  But we’re clearly not getting the job done. Read More »

History is ripe with famous feuds: the Capulets and Montagues, Alexander Hamilton and Andrew Burr, or, as I glibly noted in a previous post, Peggy and Al Bundy.  Enter Sales and Marketing to the fray: often at odds, though truly dependent on one another for the successful operation of any given company.  If early results from our sales and marketing alignment diagnostic are any indication, the two groups have managed to find at least some common ground: commercial messaging is crucial … and it’s something we’re not very good at it. Read More »

It’s a question that has perplexed humankind for centuries: If a tree falls in the woods and no one’s around to hear it, does it make a sound?  Now Marketing may not be known for its penchant for solving existential conundrums, but the same line of reasoning can be applied to the customer experience.  If you identify a set of benefits but the organization fails to demonstrate them, do they really exist?

We’re a biased group, so while differentiation may be the bread and butter of our world, the sad truth is that that simply isn’t the case within many B2B organizations.  Marketing can (and should) take the lead to identify the core set of unique benefits that set the company apart from competitors.  But when it comes to embedding these throughout the customer experience—that requires coordination of many moving pieces across the enterprise. Read More »