One of the key challenges facing many technology companies is to ensure sales and marketing are aligned.  As a Pragmatic Marketing instructor, I am frequently asked how our Framework supports a specific sales methodology – for example, Spin Selling, The Complex Sale, Customer-Centric Selling, Miller-Heiman, or Solution Selling. Whatever the sales methodology, the Framework focuses on making sure the Sales team has the right information to help move buyers through the pipeline. 

To gain insight into how this alignment between Sales and Marketing works in the real world, I interviewed a technology sales leader who has benefited from the Pragmatic Marketing Framework in several organizations.

Adam Shapiro has led sales teams in mobile, Software as a Service (SaaS), and traditional enterprise software solutions. Along the way, he has implemented several sales methodologies and CRM solutions to support those processes.  For the last seven years, Adam has helped numerous software companies improve their sales processes, tools, and techniques while blogging at Sales Reform School (www.salesreformschool.com).

I sat down with Adam for a conversation about the gaps and alignment between the Sales and Marketing teams.

Q: What is the biggest challenge you see when working with companies to align their Sales team to the market

A:  The different language of Sales and Marketing is often a key gap in effectively communicating across the business.  Often, the Marketing and Product Management teams use different terminology from the Sales team.  Too often, the groups just think differently. The most obvious difference occurs when Marketing and Product Management focus on features rather than usage.  Marketing often describes an offering in terms of what it is, rather than what users can do with it or what value customers can gain from it.  You also see this in other areas of interaction as well  – web content and collateral development, program execution, definition of a qualified prospect, and the like. 

Q: So how have you seen companies get both teams on the same page?

A:  The best way to do it is to get the market teams to appreciate the sales process and understand how the marketing language aligns with words prospects and customers use in actual conversations.  This could be done formally by attending a third-party training class alongside Sales or having a Sales resource conduct training internally, or by active participation in pipeline reviews. If Marketing hears how the Sales team works the process in a pipeline review, they can quickly get grounded in the steps, the personas, and the obstacles in deals. Since a pipeline review is like “sales in action,” we can often quickly identify messaging needs and align all teams. In the other direction, it’s helpful to have Sales participate in Marketing development and execution meetings, so they can offer the “on the ground” views, and gain an understanding of the “why’s” and “what’s” of a marketing program.

Q: What do you mean by “messaging needs”?

A: Regardless of your sales process, whether you get it from a provider, a consultant, or just figure it out yourself, Sales teams need to know exactly what stakeholders, influencers, and decision makers want to hear, discuss, and consider throughout the sales process to stay engaged and move towards closing (or disqualification).  So when I say messaging, I mean the content and context to help drive conversations, talking points, and the prospect value-drivers at each step in the process.   

Q: Pragmatic Marketing refers to that as mapping the sales process and assets to make sure all steps are covered for your buyers.  In your first response – you referenced the need for Marketing teams to provide context around qualified prospects and program development.  How does that work best?

A: Continuous collaboration and communication.  I’m not talking about meetings all the time; but recurring, interdepartmental team meetings where we review new marketing programs, trends, and activities.  Borrowing from Agile development, we do short stand-ups while Marketing is constructing a significant marketing campaign.  After a program drops and results start coming in, hold a retrospective or debrief meeting with Sales. Finally, conduct win-loss analysis and share the results. Transparency and awareness can go a long way towards alignment of Sales and Marketing.

Q: Since you mention win-loss analysis, what is your take on that?

A: When done well, win-loss can help prioritize where teams should focus.  In general – the goal is for Sales and Marketing to gain actionable insights from win-loss analysis.  These actionable insights typically address common questions every Sales and Product Management team needs to answer:

• How should the product improve?  
• Is there a prospect qualification issue?
• What are competitors doing? 
• Are there changes in the prospect influencers and markets?
• Are we selling to the right personas?
• Should we change our messaging? If so, how?
• Are we telling the right stories in the right way? 
• Are we asking the right questions?
• Are we creating or uncovering enough value?

Generally speaking, productive win-loss programs deliver market insights, prospect preferences, and help identify the common pitfalls in Sales and Marketing execution across the organization, which may be impacting deal flow.  

Q: Based on your answer it looks like win-loss should be considered a Product Management or Marketing team function?

A:   Yes it’s a Marketing function, not Sales.  You are trying to figure out why portions of your market are not buying from you.  Isn’t it Marketing’s job to figure out to whom we should be selling?  

Q.  If Marketing owns win-loss, what are some common pitfalls and best practices?

A. I’ve had the benefit of seeing 30 or 40 implementations of win-loss analysis in the last several years. The level of engagement and the sharing of information and results are all over the place. 

In the worst cases, there are two common pitfalls. The first pitfall is when sales reps conduct the win-loss interviews.  Bad idea. DO NOT let Sales conduct the interviews -- even if they claim, “But we have the relationship with these prospects.”  Buyers (both won and lost) may feel that they are being re-sold aggressively and clam up.   So Product Management or Marketing is probably the best fit.  I’ve also seen win-loss done well by third-party teams or a corporate research function in large company.  Let’s call the second common pitfall “The Ostrich Effect” – I see a problem, but I think I’ll put my head in the sand and do nothing.

When win-loss is successful, I see three common best practices.  First, leaders socialize the results and analysis both with Sales and Marketing. Second, serious effort is made to determine action items collaboratively. Third, someone is assigned the task of managing the action items to make sure they are implemented. What’s that they say about the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Q. So what are your biggest takeaways when trying to align Sales and Marketing?

A. Get everyone on the same page by using language the prospects use to assess the value of your solution. Follow Pragmatic Marketing’s message mapping process. Communicate and collaborate continuously. Conduct win-loss analysis outside the Sales organization, and assign ownership to implement action items learned. It’s all pretty straightforward, but highly effective.

Adam Shapiro has helped scores of companies and individuals improve sales performance for the past seven years.  He does this by focusing on two major areas of need - sales process and the sales conversations that need to occur within each process step.  The services he delivers to his clients can come in many forms - conversation and process drafting, workshops, individual and group coaching, and strategic planning or troubleshooting.

Prior to striking out on his own, Adam held roles in sales, marketing and business development at companies like American Lawyer Media, Harbinger Corporation, and Inovis.

From 1994 to 1997, he led the Southeastern Region's Sales and Marketing efforts for American Lawyer Media's Counsel Connect, an early internet-based online service for the legal community. In this position, he out-paced more established and well-heeled regions in revenue, subscriptions and usage.  He moved on to Harbinger, an EDI and EC provider from 1997 through early 2000, exceeding quota each year. Then at Air2Web in 2000 and 2001, Adam created the company's sales-messaging and was awarded the outstanding sales award.  In his last corporate position, he was Vice President of Sales for the managed services and value added networks lines of business for Inovis, a leading business commerce automation company. With Inovis, he successfully implemented sales process and messaging with two different sales teams and product marketing. His teams continually exceeded quotas. 

Adam has been described as someone that “moves the needle” and “speaks the truth, no matter how painful it may sound.  He’s working on that.”

Adam blogs at www.salesreformschool.com. 

You can reach him in the following ways:
Phone:  404-798-8397
Skype: Adamshap66
Email:  adam@salesreformschool.com