While executive-level management books blather on about collaboration and informed decisions, recursive loops and such, the reality remains siloed.  Multiple one-offs.  Sales may view Marketing as ill informed, lacking respect for the resources needed to do today’s job.  Conversely, Marketing often views Sales as overly needy drama queens, unappreciative of the subtle advances capable of providing long-term results.  The two departments are the business equivalent of Mars and Venus.

Imagine the possibilities if these two groups of gatherers (marketing) and hunters (sales) worked in concert to revitalize apathetic customers or leads?  With heightened cohesive efforts, could some laggards be drawn from apathy toward affinity?

Find Common Ground

Sales has heard all there is to hear during inbound calls, read it all on RFP’s and customer contact forms, and seen it all during field sales calls.  Whereas this group’s institutional knowledge should shape and direct every acquisition and maintenance strategy the marketing department develops, its often dismissed as anecdotal or circumstantial.  The problem is, most businesses lack the systems and processes in places to capture all this gold (where it may be quantified and more closely examined in an objective manner) and channel it to the folks that can do something with it.

Marketing, however, is where the brand is owned, even personified.  Those folks have taken care to define and defend a brand position.  Marketing nurtures a distinctive brand voice across all channels and knows that a little less “spew” and a little more “support” results in brand experiences which can strengthen a bond with a customer.

With all these smarts on staff, why do companies still fail?  The span between the two groups acts like a wedge, driving them further apart, creating more friction and unrealized opportunity.

Some ideas to try to bridge the gap between Marketing and Sales:

• Job shadow:  Make it mandatory for all new hires.  Develop a schedule to rotate current employees in cycles to observe and learn from other current employees.  You’ll lose some productivity in the short term, but gain better long-term understanding and help new relationships form.
• Form a central hub:  No one appreciates random fly-by requests or lengthy email rants. And yet one group doesn’t know what the other group is thinking unless the information is shared.  Set up a simple intranet or other secure online community and allow articles to be posted for others to read, Q&A for non-critical issues that emerge, and distribution of marketing tools like product sheets etc, copies of recent marketing emails, etc.
• Talk it out:  It sounds totally obvious, but simple communication can do wonders for surfacing questions and issues.  To maximize productivity and ensure quality, formulate easy-to-follow rules of engagement prior to  your first meeting.  You want to encourage comfortable discussion, not give someone a platform to purge.
• Identify it:  Ever heard of “Help me help you” cards?  These can be a great tool to raise a person’s awareness about what they’re doing that others really appreciate as well as things they could change that would really impact a colleague’s work.  The idea:  Each person on a team receive index cards equal to the number of persons on their team, minus one (they don’t need a card for themselves).  Using one card per person, write a sentence about them detailing something they do at work that helps out.  Next, write a sentence detailing one of your “wish fors,” or ways that the person could help you help them.  Example:

“Sharon, your project briefs are great.  They’re thorough, detailed, well-thought and spot on.  Thank you!”

“If I could be brought in to the new product acquisition discussions a little sooner, I might be able to be more efficient with my workflow and add more value.”

• Share and share alike:  During meetings, rotate conversation leaders.  Those persons need to recap recent projects they’ve been working on and why they were important.  Allow time for questions and even feedback.  This helps increase transparency and removes blinders that often develop when groups work separately rather than cooperatively.

These are just a few ideas to get you started.  Sustaining these tactics, along with morphing them as needed to fit your needs, is key to bridging the gap between Marketing and Sales to improve internal communication and multiply the force of your teams.

What has worked for you?  Do you have new ideas to add?

It can be emotionally wrenching and off-putting.  Sweaty palms, nervous patter.  And we’ve all been there.  Done that.

It can happen when two minimally acquainted people are pushed into close proximity in a social setting.  The plasti-smile gets yanked on.  It can happen at work when someone stubbornly advances their antiquated, myopic point of view while others look on uncomfortably.  In both cases, you are clinging to the last bit of safe ground, your comfort zone.  Anxiety crawls up your throat like a fat ant on a lazy summer day.  Trepidation reigns.

The voice inside your head screams “Escape!  Help!” and your eyes scan the horizon for the nearest life preserver:  a mutual friend who can serve as a bridge and get you through the banquet with a mere limp.  Or the patient and sensible group member whose soothing voice serves as a balm for the distressed.

The critical moment may pass, but the stink of your discomfort in those situations will linger like a Linus cloud.

Breathe easy, it’s over.  But I have a question for you.  When the conversation gets tough, do you muddle through with superficial comments about banal topics?   Are your eyes cast on the ground while you will the situation away?  Huh.  That’s too bad.

You could try something risky, something without precedent or a well-lit path.  You could change the conversation.

To change the conversation for you or your brand:

• You have to be approachable.
• You have to listen.  Forget multitasking, be respectful.
• You have to observe.  Pay attention to cues.
• You have to ask questions.  Dig deeper.  Write with your other hand.
• You have to validate, restate the message you think you’ve learned.
• You have to think laterally, make contextual relationships and connect dots.
• You may have to be  silent and reflect before determining your next step.
• You have to be humble and appreciative.
• You have to be willing to help.
• You have to ask the difficult questions, and be willing to receive the answers.
• You have to be able to accept change.  Even if it isn’t your idea.

What are your conversations about these days?  Did your last one get the better of you?

I was reminded of that age-old process for gaining approval [in order to facilitate completion of a task] today when I took my 6 yr old to meet his first grade teacher.

At the risk of oversimplifying things,  I’m suggesting that the necessity of acquiring a Hall Pass to get where you need to go (in school) is somewhat akin to the 3rd-party declarations some organizations require in order to overcome internal obstacles or road blocks.  Group A needs this, related Group B argues that.  How can progress be made?

In school, the relationship included a teacher, a student, and the oversight (auditor) person.  In organizations, the relationship could include a core group or team, the final stakeholder(s), and a 3rd-party expert or consultant.

When serving as a consultant to investigate, discover, facilitate, and synthesize information into solutions for clients, it’s important to understand if you’re serving in an auditor capacity, too.  I don’t necessarily mean in the financial sense as with a CPA auditor (although that certainly applies).  I mean “auditor” in a more figurative sense – to validate a core group’s position or opinions and perhaps mitigate some obstacles or inform and sway opinions.  Whether or not hard empirical data (primary research, statistics, etc.) is necessary in order to cement a decision to support a recommendation or merely a well-informed voice, the implication still exists:  “The [consultant] said we need to do this, and do it this way.”

That’s a big responsibility as well as a great opportunity, if you’re the consultant.  Just something to keep in mind as you serve your core contacts and satisfy the final stakeholders.  And “satisfy” doesn’t necessarily mean give them what they asked for!

Which leads me to a great campaign theme for the now-discontinued GMC Envoy* – “It’s not more than you need.  It’s more than you asked for.”

Help clients reach innovative solutions earlier by developing an awareness of the various ways you can help them carry the water.

* Envoy was the SUV with the retractable roof that could also serve as a truck.

Right now I’m mentally struggling with preparing for a new business presentation – deemed an “interview” by the prospect.  They provided us with a succinct but reasonably detailed RFP to which we responded with a dash of standard language, a bit of new content, and a pinch of creative latitude. 

Evidently that body of work passed muster, because now we’re headed to our 1 hour, 15 minute presentation.  We’ve received an outline of areas to address during our interview that reads like some standardized form.  It’s tricky to sufficiently address the listed areas without the chance to engage in some dialogue.  In its sterilized form, our PowerPoint won’t thoroughly convey our position, thought leadership, cultivated methodologies.  Granted, its the delivery and presentation itself that will provide us a platform upon which to engage these stakeholders – but what about after we’ve gone?  What about the secondary tier of influencers who won’t be in the meeting?  And what if they pack all interviews into one day, in a delivery queue?  Will we be memorable?

One of the areas of the outline that most puzzles me is the “scope of strategy” section.  Clearly this is a group of organized, process-oriented people with the right idea (“We need a 3-year plan.”). But I wonder how receptive the group will be to the concept of “experience”  (re: as a brand strategy) when their own process strips out all of the collegial and collaborative discovery that often yeilds the strongest partnerships and innovative work products?  Will they scoff?  Can experience really matter to them when their evaluation of us is so, well, clinical (pardon the pun)?

Don’t get me started on the strategy section of the interview.  As if any interviewing vendor could stand and make relevent connections without any type of dialogue or problem statement.  Strategy isn’t a side item that’s added on to compliment the site.  The site is the embodiment or manifestation of the strategy!

While it may take more time, and a greater degree of involvement and effort, it’s my hope that some potential partner out there approaches vendor relations (dare I say, partnerships?) with a discerning eye, an attentive and inquiring ear, and a tuned intuition.  Leave the interview screeners at the office, let’s talk business.