This article was shamelessly inspired by working with a great client. We worked on a proposition, and we are at the business end of the go-to-market phase. And I know the launch will be a complete success.
How do I know that?
The client did three things that will almost guarantee a smooth and successful launch, and I want to share them with you.
First off, we had sales included on the project team, right from the beginning. They were not only aligned; they fed into the strategy from day one. We tested the proposition with the sales team who are on the front line.
People who deal with customers. Day in, day out.
We received some feedback. We embedded the feedback into the proposition with messaging adjustments.
And then we made sure that the sales and marketing teams worked together.
When launches and campaigns work, it’s always when the sales and marketing teams are locked and loaded, fired up and ready for the launch.
Your teams need to be aligned, or you’re wasting your time and money.
Let me repeat this for you real quick.
If your sales and marketing teams are not aligned, you’re wasting your time and money.
You probably know from experience, all sorts of things can go wrong when you take a new product or service to market. You know that at the pointy end, just before the launch, you start seeing disconnects if things weren’t done correctly. That’s when you usually start hearing swearwords flying around in the board room and watch people pointing fingers.
Why?
Because right before the launch that’s when you usually engage the sales team with some training, so they know what and how to sell. Then, when you speak to these people, the ones who are at the frontline, you realise that you’ve missed a critical insight. Or you get feedback on all the reasons why the proposition won’t work.
The root cause here is that many business leaders think that their sales and marketing teams are two different teams, two distinct silos.
This transfers onto the teams also.
Marketing doesn’t want to get their hands dirty by actually selling and speaking to customers. Sales think that marketing is all about pointless fluff that doesn’t help to impact the bottom line.
Let’s face it, your customers aren’t dumb. If your frontline teams, sales and marketing, aren’t aligned and aren’t working in sync, you’ll lose the customer.
They go elsewhere.
In the end, all the time and effort were wasted because sales and marketing didn’t value each other or communicate and work together.
