Do More to Synch Sales and Marketing

The CMO Council recently released the findings from a study which will interest Business-to-Business marketing pros. This study asked a thousand sales and marketing execs from around the globe about their businesses' 'go-to-market' capabilities as defined as: 'strategic and tactical aspects of delivering and supporting a product or service offering in the marketplace.' This definition encompasses pricing, specifications of products, marcom, distribution, customer experience management, and after-market support.

This study, called 'Driving the Bottom Line from the Front Line,' looked at a wide range of sales and marketing variables that are connected to businesses' processes, including their functional competency, customer knowledge, strategies, processes in operations, relationship management, levels of innovation and budgeting. It seems there is still plenty of room for improvement in these areas.

The study started me thinking that maybe marketers should tie a large portion of their compensation to success in meeting the businesses' revenue growth goals. Although many marketing professionals may complain that they do not actually have enough influence on the sales process to be held accountable for end results, in order to maximize their income and retain their jobs, these marketers would need to shift a greater percentage of their time, resources and marketing budgets away from brand awareness campaigns to taking prospects from initial awareness to inquires and on to purchases.

I certainly believe that brand awareness is in important factor in marketing, but I also think that there are other very important aspects to the most successful Business-to-Business marketing programs. Do you agree?