I've said it before and I'll say it again. A lot is happening right now. Sales and marketing is more than ever integrated with each other (or more accurately, many companies want an integrated organization). It is difficult to go from words to action. To conduct is notoriously perhaps the most difficult.
Everything is connected
What I see every time I give a keynote or am at a sales meeting with a client is that everyone wants to transform into the modern sales and marketing organization. Everyone wants to start implement systems. They want to start generating leads and close deals. What we're missing from the equation is that none of the activities will be any good if we don't start at the right end.
The most important first step we can ever take, is to ask ourselves what. What are we trying to archieve? If we're about to invest in a marketing automation tool we need to have a plan. How do we want to use the tool? What are we aiming for in results by using the tool? In far too many meetings, I'm sitting face to face with a customer who is thrilled about this tool that will revolutionize the lead generation, only to have a little twitch in the stomach when he realizes that everything that has anything at all to do with sales and marketing must be taken into account... and those are many things...
Three pillars and three focus areas
This past year, we at Structsales have developed a sales and marketing model based on the following:
- One organization (not multiple sales and marketing organizations)
- One process (not one for sales and another one for marketing)
- A few clear and measurable KPIs (for both sales and marketing together)
The three focus areas I mentioned earlier are:
- Our target group (Persona)
- The Customer Buying Journey
- Our Content (Communication)
Take a look at the bullets above, and you'll quickly realize that things quickly become quite complicated. It doesn't have not be that way. I know from experience that if we start at the right end (Strategy - WHAT), we will systematically take us through the tactics and implementation down to the measurability and the closing of deals.
Want to learn more about how we think of the future sales and marketing organization should look like? Download the model here.
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