Insights for changing the way we sell

Led by the emerging breed of SaaS companies, a new blueprint for B2B lead generation has emerged over the past decade, significantly outperforming the old on volume, quality and cost per lead.

"...B2B organisations with aligned sales and marketing functions are able to realise 36% YoY revenue growth, vs. 7% revenue decline for the least aligned"

THE GAP BETWEEN SALES AND MARKETING THAT´S COSTING YOU
There is a gigantic gap (the elephant) between sales & marketing in B2B organisations and it costs a whopping $1 trillion a year in decreased sales productivity and wasted marketing efforts. The upside potential is equally staggering: B2B organisations with aligned sales and marketing functions are able to realise 36% YoY revenue growth, vs. 7% revenue decline for the least aligned. Highly aligned sales & marketing organisations deliver faster growth at a lower cost but the majority of B2B companies continue to work in a siloed sales and marketing setup from the 80´s at point in time when integration is more important than ever.

DIGITAL IS BLURRING THE LINES
Historically, sales and marketing have operated as separate functions, with distinct separate responsibilities. Marketing was tasked with creating awareness and product catalogues. Sales was tasked with creating new opportunities and closing business. But in a digital world with endless connectedness these lines are increasingly blurred. Sales people are able to leverage digital tools to work as marketers, for example when they create a followership and establish themselves and the company they work for as defacto thought leaders within their field by utilizing social media to place messages with potentially hundreds or thousands of people in the blink of an eye. Marketing are able to leverage digital tools to work as sales people, for example when they leverage content marketing to place a highly relevant insight with a CXO in a must-win account based on very detailed knowledge about her interests and behaviour.

SALES AND MARKETING ALIGNMENT SHOULD BE YOUR FOCUS AREA
Commercial success in the 21st century is about sales and marketing taking advantage of the possibilities that technology is placing right in front of them and to take a joint responsibility for the lead- and opportunity process. This means creating a new and more collaborative sales and marketing operating model for how to generate awareness, engagement, conversions and ultimately win the big deals.

By Thomas Børve, tbj@kvadrant.dk & Martin Mariussen, mnm@kvadrant.dk

"...The old lead generation machine of cold mass contacting via phone or mail is dying. Fast. Buyers increasingly prefer to go educate themselves via digital channels, and the average B2B buyer only reaches out to a vendor after completing almost 2/3 of the buying process"

"...In complex sales, the performance gap between top and average sales reps is 300% and this is widening as the average rep is experiencing a more complex buying environment"

"...In my view designing for real change in a sales organisation requires more than a generic “change management technique” sprayed on and around a standard training concept. Change management needs to be an integrated part of the initiative. Some change management experts will tell you about how a Kotter or Stacey theory should be used. That is great but how does this apply to the specifics of change in a sales organisation?"

B2B organisations need to integrate in-person communication with online communication and create and deliver a consistent message to buyers across marketing and sales. If the company is not providing this seamless experience across functions to their buyers, it is going to inevitably hurt revenue by slowing down the buyer journey if not even make it come to a full stop. That seamless experience requires quite an accomplished marketing and sales function and a strong collaboration between the two.

"...“61% of executives admit their sales managers have not been adequately trained in pipeline management strategies and techniques and the average sales manager is not able to tell the difference between pipeline management and forecasting. That is a real shame when companies that master pipeline management practices sees 28% higher revenue growth”

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