Marketing Assisted Selling Helps Deal Makers

Sales driven companies are slanted towards transactions. Their sales reps sell existing products to existing markets and are accountable for prospecting and account management. They rely on the “marketing department” for sales support and are not interested in developing or acquiring a marketing competency.

Sales driven companies apply basic marketing concepts that don't challenge their comfort zones. For example, customer experience management [CEM] is not a program, but contact centers offer customer support and sales support. Content marketing is not a program, but online and printed collateral supports the sales process. They participate in events, direct mail and email marketing, social media, publicity and field marketing, but do a mediocre job of generating sales-ready leads. Influencer marketing and complementary selling are not programs, but sales reps are asked to network for referrals. Market research is not a competency but sales analysis helps them to understand account, segment and product trends. Account Based Marketing [ABM] is not a program, but account managers are assigned to key customers. They do not manage to marketing KPIs, but sales metrics provide the basis for compensation programs. CRM tools automate the sales process, but are not well integrated with CEM and marketing processes.

If marketing assisted selling is not producing the results you need to reach the next level, maybe it’s time for your company to begin its evolution towards marketing-driven status.  Expand your horizons to innovate the changes needed to navigate lifecycle stages [introduction, growth, maturity and decline] and to make smart decisions for dealing with external opportunities and threats [social, economic, technological, competitive and regulatory].