NOTE: Click here if you prefer a video version of this article
Anyone who’s been in business for a while has witnessed this debate play out in real-life. The salespeople complain that the marketing leads are weak. The marketers claim that the sales reps don’t follow up properly on the leads, or aren’t strong closers. It’s a classic debate that started a long time ago and may never have a winner.
The truth is that both are important of course. The real goal for both groups is to close more deals and add more customers and/or grow existing business. But times have changed, as have the roles of sales and marketing. Their responsibilities have evolved.
So if you’re trying to achieve ambitious growth this year, and you’re facing a decision about whether to invest in more sales people or more marketing, this article should be helpful.
By the way, if one of your goals is to add more new customers to your business, this video will definitely be helpful to you.
From my first-hand knowledge, here’s my take on this classic debate.
Here’s the short answer to the sales vs. marketing question
Once upon a time, before the digital age, salespeople had a HUGE responsibility to educate customers, explain various options, and ultimately persuade the customers to buy from them. Marketing assisted in this process.
In the modern age, customers educate themselves, through various marketing means, and arrive (almost) at a decision before they even speak to a salesperson. Sales finishes the job.
What’s more important today– sales or marketing?
So the winner is…
It’s obviously sales…right?
Salespeople are measured on results. Their mission is clear. Persuade customers to buy from them, close deals, deliver revenue. They have a responsibility to understand the company’s value proposition, explain it clearly to prospects, handle objections, and set the company up for high-probability wins. It takes skilled professionals to be proficient, and those that are elite are paid well, and rightfully so. They deliver results.
But buying behavior has drastically changed over the years. Before the digital age, customers were at a disadvantage. Their primary means of education around a product or service was to speak to a salesperson. Salespeople were counted on to know about their products, services, and industry because education was a big part of their job.
Today, the internet takes care of 90% of that effort.
Customers now do almost all of their research online, by themselves, in advance, before they ever speak to a salesperson. I’m sure you personally experienced this the last time you bought something of value. Your decision was 90% made BEFORE you spoke to a salesperson.
So the role of a salesperson has dramatically changed. They are no longer the educators, but they still are the objection handlers and closers. There is still great benefit to having live people influence the customer to take positive action.
So then the answer is marketing…I think
Amazon changed the world. Millions of people every day research and purchase products online in a self-service model without ever speaking to a salesperson! You’ve probably done this yourself, and I bet you’ve never spoken to anyone at Amazon ever!
We’re in a digital commerce world, and it’s only accelerating. Consumers are increasingly preferring a self-service model, where live vendor interaction either happens late in the process, or not at all. Just ask a teenager if they prefer to speak to people live before they buy anything. And those are our future business leaders.
But for self-service, online, automated transactions to work, the marketing must be impeccable. Marketing is typically the first thing -and only thing -a prospect will experience.
So marketing shoulders all of the burden in this model– educator about the product or service, competitive comparisons, what the expected outcome of the product or service will be, how to handle support if trouble arises after the fact, how the pricing works and why it’s a good model, etc.
So the winner is marketing…but…
In our modern world, marketing plays a much larger role than it ever has in our history because that’s the first (and potentially only) thing prospects will experience. There is incredible pressure on marketing to get the message right, the pricing, competitive comparisons, ensure a frictionless purchasing process, etc.
But it’s almost impossible for marketing to nail everything perfectly, so any gaps that occur are made up for by the salespeople. They still play a big role in understanding everything and ensuring that any questions or objections that arise, they can skillfully handle and influence the deal to a close.
However, as sales get more complex, the role of the salesperson becomes more important because marketing can’t possibly tackle every data point in a complex sale.
Furthermore, I believe marketing is critical especially when trying to win brand new customers who have no previous experience with your company.
Finally, when it comes to existing customers, the role of salesperson has evolved into a “customer success” advocate where the sales abilities are less important and the problem-solving skills become more critical. But I’ll save that for another time.
Conclusion
Hopefully these points have caused you to think about your investments in your business. My personal advice is get the marketing right, invest time and money to ensure marketing is doing a tremendous job on the heavy-lifting, and your salespeople will have a much easier time driving the deals to a close.
Speaking of marketing, here’s another opportunity for you to watch a video on a specific digital marketing strategy to Increase Your Customer Acquisition by 50% This Year.
