“Be careful,” warned a CMO from a $475mil SaaS brand, “Sales just doesn’t pay attention until they absolutely have to.” “Even if you involve Sales early in messaging development there will still be last-minute surprises,” they added.

Ah yes, the Marketing versus Sales conflict is alive and well again in 2024. And not just about messaging. It’s uglier than that.

Marketing vs Sales

For a few years (2021-2023), it looked like the grown-ups in both departments had worked things out. Civility ruled, or so it seemed. We spent very little time in Huddles talking about Sales dropping the ball or Sales not closing. Not anymore. The partnership, if it ever existed, is breaking down. The blame game is back.

So What’s Changed?

In the immortal words of James Carville, “It’s the economy stupid.” More specifically, the B2B economy. Our research among 121 B2B marketing leaders identifies significant economic softness. Budgets are down, sales cycles are up and 69% of those surveyed believe their industry is in a recession.

When the going gets tough, the weak blame Marketing. Or Sales.

In their hearts, CMOs know it is fruitless to blame Sales. Even if they are covering every salesperson with more than enough qualified opportunities. Even if these same salespeople revert to a pricing pitch the minute a prospect pushes back. Even if their close rate is well below the category average. Like it or not, if Sales is faltering, Marketing loses too.

When a descending tide lowers all the boats, the crafty prevail.

5 Strategies

Here are 5 crafty strategies for B2B CMOs to eliminate the blame game and beat the tide:

• Joint metrics reporting: Eliminate any “marketing-sourced” metrics from your reports. Issue one metrics report from Sales & Marketing to demonstrate your united effort to drive pipeline and close deals. Present reports together
• Align staff: Everyone in Marketing should have at least 1 “buddy” in Sales with whom they meet regularly. Someone from Marketing should attend every Sales meeting and vice versa. The days of a “hand-off” are over
  
• Deal rooms: To concentrate attention on the big deals, create a physical or virtual “war room.” The room should house competitive intel, in-depth profiles of the buying committee, timetables, contact assignments, sales enablement tools like a how-we-beat-each-competitor matrix, etc.
• Go on sales calls: Sure you can listen to calls via tools like Gong but that’s not the same as experiencing the actual challenge of selling. Walk a mile or two in sales’ shoes and good things happen. More respect from Sales. More empathy for salespeople. And more insight into the messaging challenges you’re uniquely equipped to solve
• Test a big bet: A tweak here or there to your messaging won’t fight the tide. Pick a vertical market and disrupt it with an outrageous added-value offer. Something irresistible. Something that accelerates the “speed to hero” for the buyer
  

Written by Drew Neisser