A recent survey of 185 organisations found that 60% had flat or reducing revenues last year.
Why? And what were the 40% doing right?
The survey by Peter Strohkorb Consulting examined the role of both marketing and sales and how effectively they worked together.
A clear message in
their report was that "the better the collaboration between marketing and sales the higher the chance of sales revenue growth".
The report states that "The intensity and frequency of contact between sales and marketing people, as well as having a single senior executive being accountable for both departments seem to be the key that enables sales revenue growth".
This was no surprise to me. What was a surprise is that "81.5% of enterprises whose revenue flat-lined or declined, operate separate Sales and Marketing teams, each reporting to a separate manager or senior executive.
On a positive note the report found that the growth companies typically had:
- Well aligned shared objectives and metrics across sales and marketing,
- A good understanding by marketing about what sales collateral is being used by the high performing sales people, and how it is used.
- Marketing teams who felt that promotional activities and lead generation were far more important than those in poor performing companies
Surprisingly, those organisations that had implemented CRM and sales force automation, plus marketing automation systems fared worst when it came to sales performance.
Reasons for this have been explored on the Strategic Selling group recently -
see those views and join the discussion here.
You can download the research findings from the Peter Strohkorb Consulting
website.
- What are your views?
- Does a less than satisfactory working relationship between sales and marketing impact revenue?
- Do marketing and sales work together effectively in your organisation? If so, how?
- What do you recommend to improve the effectiveness of sales and marketing?
Please post your comments below