Marketing Should Market and Sales Should Sell

The line between Sales and Marketing is getting thinner and thinner these days.

The line between Sales and Marketing is getting thinner and thinner these days. Marketing is become more targeted with their messaging, while Sales is getting more generic and templated with theirs. Companies are trying to control the message by having Marketing develop templates for Sales who then send them out in bulk to try and hit their activity metrics for the day. Everyone is searching for the magic template that gets the highest conversion rate, so they don’t actually have to do any real work.

None of this is good for either group. What’s the difference between a Sales reps sending out templated e-mails through a tool like Salesloft or Outreach and a Marketer sending out templates through Marketo or Pardot? There isn’t one. It just doubles up the amount of crap that gets sent out.

To address this challenge, I think we need to focus on the difference between context and content while doing a better job clarifying and segmenting Sales and Marketing messaging.

Context vs Content

I wrote about the concept and practice of content versus context a while ago so I won’t go into too much detail on that other than to reiterate that Marketing is about content and Sales is about context. If we as Sales professionals are not putting any context around our content, then we’re no different than Marketing and I have no idea why we’re getting paid to do what we do.

Sales Messaging vs Marketing Messaging

There is also a big difference between Sales messaging and Marketing messaging. Most companies have a hard time distinguishing between the two, and too often force sales reps to regurgitate Marketing messaging that doesn’t resonate on a one-on-one basis. The problem is that even though it might be hard for the company to distinguish between the two types of messaging, it’s usually obvious to the prospect.

The easiest way I can describe the difference is by using an example. Marketing messaging would sound something like “on average our clients see a 32% increase in productivity” or “up to a 32% increase.

While Sales should be more like “We showed this specific client in your industry how to drive a 21% increase in their pipeline using our solution and your company fits a similar profile, which is why I wanted to call you.

The challenge with separating Sales and Marketing messaging is more obvious when Marketing sends out mass e-mails on the sales rep’s behalf and then the sales rep tries to follow up. Therefore, I personally do not recommend putting the sales rep’s name on the e-mails that get sent out by Marketing. Everyone knows what a Marketing e-mail looks like. By putting the sales rep’s name on it you’re putting them at a disadvantage if they ever do want to take a thoughtful, tailored approach to that same prospect. They are most likely already in the spam filter if we go that route.

My Recommendation

Have the Marketing e-mails that promote events come from the VP of Marketing or CEO instead of the sales rep. Then have the sales rep take that Marketing e-mail and forward it to a select group of target accounts with some context mentioning something specific about the prospect and why they should attend.

Do the same thing with e-mails promoting webinars. If someone in a target account signs up for a webinar and doesn’t attend, then the sales rep can forward the link to the webinar recording and tell them to listen to a certain section of the webinar or summarize the key takeaways.

I completely understand the desire to control the messaging and automate as much of the communication as possible to attract clients. Automation is scalable and cheaper than customization. The problem is the volume of messaging that is getting sent out is deterring prospects instead of attracting them, while significantly diminishing the perceived and actual value of the sales rep.  With a focus on context versus content and a tailored versus targeted approach, we might have a chance to work together and make a difference.

Make It Happen!

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