The Missing Piece: Connecting Marketing & Sales

There's a lot of advice out there about "fixing" your marketing. Ditto that with sales. And a lot of conflicting advice at that.

I've written a lot about authentic marketing. And authentic selling. But if those two things aren't connected...well, then...we don't really have a "funnel".

To Funnel: guide or channel (something) through (to somewhere)

So, if your "somewhere" is a SALE, both activities are about guiding people through the process. Perhaps different pieces of the process, but if those parts don't connect, the destination can't be reached.

Historically, #marketing is all about visibility. Advertising. Showing people what it is that we have as a business. And #sales is all about the activity of selling, leading to closing deals. So, where do they meet?

Let's explore.

Where Marketing Ends

I've worked in a lot of marketing teams, and generally, marketing ends at PUBLISHED & REPORTED. Let me explain.

• We PUBLISHED a piece of content and we REPORTED on the impressions, likes, shares, etc.
• We PUBLISHED our website and we REPORTED on bounce rates, click rates, downloads, etc.
• We PUBLISHED our digital ads and we REPORTED on number of views, click-through rates, and ROI.
• We PUBLISHED our email newsletter and we REPORTED on the open rate, number of opt-outs, click rates, etc.
• We PUBLISHED our podcast and we REPORTED on the downloads.

Most marketing departments are being measured on how well they do the Publish and Report activities. And if "results" (aka, number of impressions, engagement, click-through rates, opt-out rates, open rates, downloads) are within the industry norms, we're good.

We forget to look at whether or not those activities are driving any sales.

Because we're in marketing, not sales ??

Where Sales Begins

On the flip side, where does sales begin?

Usually, a sale starts and ends with a sales rep.

And for most sales reps, they are out HUNTING for business. For leads. It's part of what they're instructed to do...regardless of the marketing.

It's almost assumed that marketing WON'T drive any direct leads, so we have to go out and look for them ourselves. And MAYBE we use some marketing resources, but be honest...if you've worked with sales reps, how often do they ACTUALLY use marketing collateral that's NOT created specifically for them?

In my experience, very little (if at all).

So, sales reps build the ENTIRE relationship themselves. They OWN the relationship.

ONE person.

But according to Gartner, in a typical firm with 100-500 employees, an average of 7 people are involved in most buying decisions. And personally, I don't like the odds of 7 to 1.

But sales reps won't team up. Oh no. Who would get the commission?

So, they go in on their own to fight the good fight. And convince 7 people they need what we have.

Not the EASIEST way to close a deal. Maybe that's why sales cycles are so long as well?

Mind The Gap

There's clearly a gap. But most companies ignore it.

For years, in the London Underground, to ensure people didn't get caught between the platform and the trains, Mind The Gap was an echo in everyone's brains. And I' bringing it back.

And WHY does it make sense to mind the gap?

Because you are spending time, effort, energy and MONEY on people doing activities that AREN'T aligned, and there's waste.

1. Wasted Time: employees spend time on THESE things instead of spending their time on things that lead to a sale.
2. Wasted Effort: employees can FEEL when they are busy doing things that don't add an impact, and the good ones will leave.
3. Wasted Energy: employees slowly burn out DOING instead of doing things the can SEE.
4. Wasted Budget: in these scenarios, you are STILL paying people, regardless of them doing something that ends up in revenue. Good spend?

NOT A GOOD SPEND.

Yet hundreds, nay, thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of companies do this day in, day out. Year in, year out. And don't scale.

So, if you're finally seeing the gap, what can we do about it?

Getting Social

I've had a mixed relationship with the phrase "social selling", but I 100% see it as filling this gap, and I'll tell you why.

What is #socialselling? It's the activities of being SOCIAL that invite people into your company conversation.

Now, let's imagine that we plug this in: BOTH at the end of Marketing and the beginning of Sales

• A New Way to Market: Publish > Report > Get Social
• A New Way to Sell: Get Social > Propose Solution > Close

So, let's say we add Get Social on to the end of our first marketing example of the piece of content being posted. Now, our flow looks like this:

1. Publish Content,
2. Report on Content, and
3. Get Social with people based on content (aka, have a conversation).

And in the sales arena, we've got:

1. Get Social with a variety of decision makers from target companies (as people, not as "targets"),
2. Propose Solutions to people who you are being social with (if they have a relevant need...hope that's obvious), and
3. Close business with people who like YOU.

I like to simply call this #networking. But it's not the same as networking that's focused on a pitch. It's what my friend Yermi Kurkus likes to call Transformational Networking; my definition for which is, "connecting with the people with the possibility of personal transformation".

It's about business...but it's NOT. Not first anyway.

At first, it's about humans FEELING connected.

THEN it's about solving problems for those humans.

THAT'S what connects marketing and sales.

ONE Team. ONE Goal. And a little bit of Getting Social ??

And it does some cool things for your Digital Influence as well ??

Are you ready to get social? If so, let's chat :)