Savvy B2B Marketing

This is the third in a series of reports from Heather’s coverage of the Integrated Marketing Summit.  The other posts can be found here.

When I walked into the session at the IMS titled Creating the Ideal Buying & Selling Environment I came in with quite a bit of historical baggage.  I have been on both the sales and the marketing side of organizations and I know getting the two together is no easy task.  Most companies give put a lot of nice talking points around why sales and marketing need to be aligned by very few have found the key to true harmony among their internal groups. 

Mark O’Renick, CEO of Salva O’Renick was the presenter for this session.  His presentation started with lots of compelling facts and figures about how Sales and Marketing integration optimizes sales effectiveness.  He quoted lots of notable reports like CMO Council’s Closing the Gap.  Really good reading but more or less it tells you what you already know, in order to be truly effective both sides need to open up and see common ground and mutual benefit in the process.  Mark didn’t spend a lot of time preaching to the choir as I am certain most of the marketing and sales professionals in the room agree unity of purpose is key or they wouldn’t have come to this session.

Mark and the folks at Salva O’Renick is committed to helping their clients achieve it.  I can say this not only because I heard Mark talk about it in his presentation but when I went to their website afterwards, there was total alignment of message.  Mark and Salva O’Renick are eating their own dog food and I personally find that tremendously persuasive.  So below are the 10 factors Mark gave in his presentation which were also on the website.

Ten Factors for Creating the Ideal Buying & Selling Environment

1. Develop an ownable, valuable & extendable brand
2. Optimize paid and earned media
3. Create effective, enthusiastic and compliant local marketers
4. Design an effective lead-generation and nurturing strategy
5. Recruit and train the right sales professionals
6. Build a highly motivated, creatively rewarded sales force
7. Implement effective, integrated engagement tools
8. Nurture community-building around your efforts
9. Share your valuable expertise
10. Establish a fully integrated marketing analytics program

I know some of the 10 Factors seem overly simplified when you list them out like that.  I can hear you saying “Duh, I need to recruit and train the right sales professionals, you didn’t need to tell me that!”  It is when you look at the list as a whole and as a process working together that you begin to understand the overall approach.  In recruiting and training the right sales professionals you need to ensure they are committed to the efforts of the other 9 factors.  A salesperson who is good for the overall organization is only great if they are willing to share their valuable expertise (#9), help you build relationships that give you effective, enthusiastic and complaint local marketers (#3) and support the creation of a full integrated marketing analytics program (#10). 

So Joe Hotshot sales guy who always meets his number might be the epitome of highly motivated creatively rewarded sales force (#6) but if he never shares his lessons learned or documents his sales process steps how can your organization overall learn from and grow his success?

What additional factors do you believe are necessary for Sales and Marketing alignment and ultimately success?