One recent observation I’ve made in working with both sales and marketing teams is there isn’t always understanding or alignment with respect to what each group is doing. Clearly, each group plays an important role in the carrying out the company’s objectives, but those roles often seem very different and, at times, disjointed.
I will hear things like, “Sales just goes and does their own thing,” or “Marketing doesn’t understand what it’s like day-to-day in the field.” This lack of alignment creates inefficiencies and frustrations, hindering the progress of company objectives forward in the field.
When you look at the basic purposes of sales and marketing teams, it comes down to this: marketing is responsible for developing strategy, while sales is responsible for implementing it. Without proper communication, understanding, and buy-in, even the best strategies can fall flat due to poor implementation. In some cases, this can lead to internal conflict and frustration and, even worse, negatively impact the customer experience.
THE DISCONNECT
I have had many conversations with marketing managers about their frustration with pricing. They feel the marketing department develops strong products with a lot of thought and effort. They do their research and create visually appealing messages for the market—all in the spirit of creating value and earning margin.
The product is then put in the hands of the sales team who, instead of acting strategically, become very tactical and do whatever they need to do to make a sale. One of these tactics is using price as a tool to earn sales, which erodes margins, devalues the product, and renders the marketing strategy useless.
Similarly, salespeople are often critical of marketing departments, suggesting they don’t understand the challenges associated with selling in their local markets. This is understandable, especially considering that in agriculture, many marketing departments are in office buildings in major centers, while salespeople are scattered throughout the countryside in rural communities, potentially on opposite ends of the state or country. As a result, the strategies developed by the marketing team are perceived as being “out of touch” with the local market situation and customer base.
Without proper communication, understanding, and buy-in, even the best strategies can fall flat due to poor implementation.
BRIDGING THE GAP
So, what can be done to help create more alignment? Here are a few thoughts:
- Involve salespeople in the strategic planning process. This ensures their views are represented, but more importantly, salespeople often have a closer relationship with the customer and see things that marketing might not see from the office.
- Engage the sales team to gain insights. Salespeople may be one of an organization’s most under-utilized resources for gathering customer intelligence. At least once a year, marketing people should visit with some salespeople and accompany them on customer calls to understand salespeople better and glean observations from local markets.
- Offer incentives based on margin or effort, not volume. Instead of incentivizing volume and using this as a measure of success, find other more meaningful metrics like margin targets, attracting specific customer segments, or measurements of customer satisfaction. This will help protect the value proposition and margin.
- Ensure the sales team understands marketing strategy. It’s imperative that salespeople not only understand selling skills but also develop a conceptual understanding of marketing. By understanding the theories, tools, terminology and tactics used in a marketing strategy, salespeople can better understand why they are being asked to do certain things. This understanding leads to better execution and a more cohesive sales/marketing effort.
BEYOND THE BLOG
For those looking to align their sales and marketing efforts effectively, our upcoming Strategic Agri-Marketing workshop offers a unique, case study-based learning experience. Over three days, you’ll dive deep into real-world scenarios to develop strategic marketing approaches, build measurable marketing models, and integrate marketing and financial objectives seamlessly. Join Scott Downey and Justin Funk to gain practical insights to transform your agribusiness strategies. For more information, program dates and to register, click the button below.
