The Seven Myths of B2B Marketing

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  davidhensel01/04/08 Report as spam
  1

  Why This Blog Wastes My Time

  Is it worthwhile to criticize the "worst practices" of marketing as some form of
  artful instruction here? Yes, there is marketing that sucks: bad organizations,
  bad practices, bad straegies, bad prioritization. And there are sales?? and
  sales people?? who suck. Who DON'T tell marketing what the customer wants.
  Who DON'T use the tools they're given (that they've asked for). Who have no
  clue to how to manage information through the sales cycle. Who waste the
  money marketing spends by sqandering all the qualified leads going their
  way.
  
  So, let's review: "good sales is better than bad marketing."
  
  Gosh.
  
  Thanks for that.
  
  Back to work...

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine01/04/08 Report as spam
  2

  Well...

  When the Sales function is broken, companies go bankrupt, quickly, regardless of what the marketing group is doing.
  
  By contrast, bad marketing can live on, and on, and on, surviving on the back of good selling.
  
  So they're not really the same thing. As long as so many marketing groups remain parasitical, the world sometimes needs some disinfectant.

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  davidhensel01/04/08 Report as spam
  3

  Well then...

  I'm still waiting.
  
  See, not too long ago I ran into the salesman who had just made a two-million
  dollar sale he wanted to tell me about. Said it was the "easiest close of [his]
  career." Couldn't believe it, he said.
  
  Apparently, the customer had come to the dealership well equipped with
  everything he needed to make his purchase ? thanks to the new web site we
  built. What can normally be a two-week, two-month, or event a year-long
  sales cycle took... two hours. And this salesman gave full credit to the
  "amazing new web site." Said it did all his work for him.
  
  So: I'm still waiting.
  
  For my share of the comission check.
  
  Just who is "parasitical" here?

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  An Expat in France01/05/08 Report as spam
  4

  "Waiting for your comission check?"

  How many months did it take you to build that website? ...and I assume you were paid for that time?
  
  Sales is a highly-compensated role that involves risk. While engineering can say "we'll fix it in the next release," the sales rep loses the deal, and the paycheck. ...and possibly his/her job.
  
  A couple of years ago, a company I worked for tried to build a partner portal for enterprise customers, to make the sales process easier/faster/more efficient/etc...
  
  14 months and US$12 million later, the platform still hadn't launched into full production.
  
  The company essentially shut the project down. But not until they had invested a lot of money in it. ...Including 14 months salary, paid to each of the 24 individuals on the development team.
  
  My point is... You've been paid.
  
  ---
  I've been in sales, marketing and operations, and non-performers can be found EVERYWHERE in a corporation. The sad truth is that we all have to share the burden of carrying non-performers until they can be jettisoned.
  
  It IS possible to track the contributions of even high-level marketing activity to a certain degree, and any Marketing group that can't track revenue growth/shrinkage directly to their strategy/marketing plan should be shaken-up.
  
  If you can't measure it, you can't manage it. And if you can't manage it, don't take any more credit than just being the one standing there when the wheel went 'round.

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  ptiseo01/04/08 Report as spam
  5

  Again With The Bashing

  Still taking BAD marketeers and broad-stroking it into ALL marketeers.
  
  Every single assertion in the set of seven has either big holes, horrible negative stereotypes or overweening generalizations of some sort that support your crusade. I don't have the time to debunk it all, and I don't want to write your next book.
  
  However, it is hard to resist.
  
  "Myth: Sales and Marketing are comparable functions.
  Truth: Sales is essential; Marketing is not."
  
  I agree it's a myth, and only truly ignorant people would say that, but the "Truth" line is totally unrelated to the "Myth" line, except maybe to allow you to take yet another jab at your favored target?
  
  "With Sales (unlike Marketing) there is a direct connection between behavior and measurement."
  
  Good marketing groups do have direct and relevant metrics that you haven't taken the time to research. See my post "Adding Counterpoint" in your previous article. I've seen plenty of Sales departments with bad metrics, even though of various departments, Sales is one of the easiest to measure.
  
  I will say this, your posts have helped gel my own business thinking on various topics, so I keep coming to see good examples of faulty thinking, so that I can train my self to avoid it or be better prepared to rebutt it. Not to be all negative, you've hit some good points at times too.
  
  Thanks.
  
  - alphadogg

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine01/04/08 Report as spam
  6

  Why Bash?

  Simple. Because unless somebody points out that most Marketing is the proverbial naked emperor, bad Marketing practices will continue forever.
  
  That's the problem with having a corporate function that congenitally avoids quantitative measurement that's tied to their own activities.
  
  The only way to correct the abuses is to point them out. Repeatedly. Otherwise, they just go on and on and on.

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  ptiseo01/04/08 Report as spam
  7

  Bashing Versus Criticism

  "Because unless somebody points out that most Marketing is the proverbial naked emperor, bad Marketing practices will continue forever."
  
  Yes, most Marketing is bad. So is most Sales, most Ops, most IT, etc. That's why many companies fail and that's what keeps book writers and business-world bloggers in existence, else they'd have nothing to write about.
  
  "...corporate function that congenitally avoids quantitative measurement that's tied to their own activities."
  
  But, you promote and regale in the idea that ALL marketing is bad, almost to the point of zealotry. The above sentence illustrates your point. Use of the word "congenital" is quite illustrative of your style: agressive (as in brow-beating to win) over-generalization and polarizing argumentation.
  
  "The only way to correct the abuses is to point them out."
  
  Obviously. But when done well, it's called constructive criticism. When done badly, inaccurately or inappropriately, it's bashing.
  
  - alphadogg

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  An Expat in France01/05/08 Report as spam
  8

  Take the Blinders Off...

  For the most part, this is spot-on, but I take issue with a few of the basic assumptions/premises of the article.
  
  Most of those who think that Marketing's only function should be lead generation probably equate "marketing" with "advertising" or developing sales promotions. If this is your interpretation, then your experience with marketing professionals is different than mine.
  
  Google notwithstanding, companies have limited resources - financial and human. Part (in fact MOST) of marketing's function is to help (repeat "help") make decisions about what constitutes a good 'business' opportunity, and how best to apply those resources in order to exploit that opportunity. (I emphasize "business" opportunity, as opposed to "sales" opportunity.)
  
  As a marketing manager, I have taken the heat from many, many sales managers who tell me what their challenges are, and how they think we could address them. I am fortunate enough to work with some highly competent professionals who understand that theirs is not the only customer group on the company's radar screen. Sales organizations are motivated, managed and rewarded for their ability to penetrate a particular territory, vertical market or account list, and their perspective is understandably oriented toward that area of responsibility.
  
  What's more, in the wake of corporate decisions to diversify product and service portfolios, sales teams being asked to shoulder more and more responsibility for account management - in order to maximize the revenue per customer and prevent competitors from gaining a foothold in a customer account. So it should come as no surprise that territory/industry sales managers - whose performance reviews are primarily based on revenue, by the way - are going to be more focused on how to satisfy the customers in their particular hunting patch than on the global picture.
  
  To their credit, the Sales professionals provide valuable feedback in product development and competitive positioning, but decisions that take months to implement, and which must be balanced against other priorities, have to be taken by someone/some group that is thinking toward a longer time-horizon than the quarterly (or even monthly) view that most Sales organizations are prone to do.
  
  Sales and Marketing go hand-in-hand, as they should. But teamwork and collaboration is what leads to success - not turf wars and mud-slinging. This is the face of Marketing in a mid- or large-cap company; Marketing (with input from sales, engineering, support, etc...) plays a role in determining who is targeted, and how they should be targeted. To be sure, some people who call themselves Marketers aren't up to the challenge, but let's not minimize the value of what it is that truly talented Marketing professionals do.
  
  But if you insist on continuing to demean the Marketing profession, where is your argument for the transactional sales person? e.g.: Someone who treats the customer as a piggy bank, and is only focused on this month's opportunities?
  
  The engineering teams I have worked with are grateful that they don't have to deal with the customers who request a 100% customized product while demanding an off-the-shelf delivery schedule. And I know that sales teams are often put in difficult situations when they have to overcome customer objections; or occasionally have to walk away from a deal. But the professionals I work with recognize that while Mass Customization is a great concept, you simply cannot promise to deliver 6.2 billion different flavors of ice cream without the incumbent delays in engineering, supply chain, customer satisfaction and support issues.

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  NCWATKIS01/07/08 Report as spam
  9

  RE: The Seven Myths of B2B Marketing

  The problem lies in the definition of Marketing. The American Marketing Association Board of Directors adopted a new definition of marketing, as ???the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.??? In Britain the Chartered Institute of Marketing defines Marketing as "the management process that identifies, anticipates and satisfies customer requirements profitably???. Thus in Britain, Marketing includes everything involved in identifying and satisfying customers, and that includes selling.
  
  N.C.WATKIS AE DipM CMC FCIM MIMC

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine01/07/08 Report as spam
  10

  Love the acronyms...

  Please let us mere mortals know what all those acronyms after your name mean.

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  Emp Rx01/07/08 Report as spam
  11

  RE: The Seven Myths of B2B Marketing

  "Customers know pretty much what they want; Sales helps them find it"
  
  You hit the nail on the head.
  
  This may sound simplistic, but like "the man" says find the need and you've found a sale.
  
  Marketing's job is to identify the characteristics of the need, then identify your market segments, then identify your most likely "suspects" within those markets, and let them know you understand their need, and can offer ways to satisfy it.
  
  Simple!!!

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  writersblock01/08/08 Report as spam
  12

  Sales people that can't sell

  We recently experienced what happens when sales people fall back on blaming a lack of marketing.
  
  Being a small bootstrap start-up with very limited funding, marketing took back seat to hiring a sales person. Their primary job was to build relationships using their existing network and close a couple of deals.
  
  Nine months later, no sales, a huge employment payout (by our standards) and what was used as a basis for this? The company did not provide sufficient lead generation through marketing for sales to "do their job".
  
  Now the question we ask ourselves is would we have been better of spending this guys salary on marketing and having stakeholders try to close the deals (sales not being core skills).
  
  Anyway, this is just a rant. I'll go off and navel gaze a bit more.

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine01/09/08 Report as spam
  13

  I hear ya.

  The problem here was that you hired the wrong kind of person. Under those circumstances you needed one of those rare individuals who can do the job of both sales and marketing. I'll bet that the guy you hired had experience in big companies where there's some kind of segmentation of labor.
  
  However, the guy was right about lead generation being important. It's just that, rather than complaining, he should have buckled down and done what it would have taken to make the company successful.

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  Marketing Machine09/09/09 Report as spam
  14

  Move on.

  I work in a B2B company that sells 60% of its products through the web. When I send out an email marketing campaign, I can track click throughs right through to purchase. It works, and my figures are available for anyone in the company to see.
  
  In our line of business, the customer knows how to buy, it's easy and they can do it themselves. However, because we offer thousands of very complicated products, they often don't know whats available, or need to be reminded of updates or related products. So we tell tell them, if they give us permission to do so.
  
  Marketing has moved on, so should you.