By John Holland, Chief Content Officer, CustomerCentric Selling® – The Sales Training Company
Image courtesy of Surasaki Stock at FreeDigitaPhotos.net
Is it just me, or are Marketing people starting to behave like salespeople? Most have been given responsibility for the top of the funnel. In my experience sellers historically have been most aggressive and annoying at the start of buying cycles in trying to get in the door and at then end of buying cycles with high-pressure closes.
While organizations have changed the people generating leads, there is a valuable lesson to be learned. Whether marketing or salespeople, buyers do not want to be sold. They much prefer to buy. In order to achieve that objective companies must learn how to create offerings that the market and buyers need and therefore want to buy.
Many senior executives confuse sales enablement with somehow becoming customer-centric. If only it were that easy. The fact is that product development done with inside-out views will continue to require “push strategies” and make Marketing staff act like salespeople. The current structure with the silos of Product Development, Product Marketing, Marketing and Sales must be disbanded in order to have customer-centric offerings. Outside-in views are needed for “pull strategies” to be employed.