In my first post, I already said that I’ve spent an important part of my career in sales, both in Pharma and Medical Device. Hence, I strongly believe that sales experience is critical, and it is a kind of “boot camp” for a marketing professional.
In my years of experience, I found out that Marketing and Sales conflicts, especially in large medtech organizations, are more the norms than the exception.
Although the tension between the 2 departments is normal, poor alignment between Marketing and Sales will always produce low performances and wasted resources.
What Are The Symptoms Of A Conflict Between Marketing And Sales?
Some notable symptoms of Marketing and Sales conflicts I saw more than once are:
- The way the 2 teams describe the other is negative.
- The members of the 2 teams always take the opportunity to point fingers, blame, and complain.
- The fight for resources between the leaders of the two teams is violent.
- Marketing campaigns are not implemented by the Sales team.
- Field inputs are not considered by the Marketing team.
- Marketing is rarely involved with key customers and the sales force is not keen to supply the information requested by marketing.
How To Increase Marketing And Sales Alignment?
1. Marketing And Sales Define The Sales Funnel Structure
Describing the customer journey and the marketing tools needed for each stage will force Marketing and Sales to agree on the steps to acquire a new customer, who will do what, when, why, and how.
2. Involve The Sales Team In Upstream Marketing
The sales team is happy to participate in product development activities and normally feels valued.
Moreover, Salesforce can bring useful inputs, and facilitate access to customers to test hypotheses and prototypes.
On some occasions, Sales reps can quickly validate features, enhancements, and ideas without involving the user as a first step.
3. Each Organization Agree On What To Do For The Other
For instance, Marketing supports sales with the management of certain KOLs, if some predefined conditions are met (like importance, degree of influence, etc).
And Sales provides data to marketing to find inconsistencies between strategy and field tactics.
4. Share Best Practice Of Collaboration
New ways of cooperation practice producing at least minimum results should be celebrated and shared.
5. Base Discussion On Data And Facts As Soon As Conflicts Arise
It is important to generate and agree on data. For example a dashboard:
When a discussion starts to arise between Marketing and Sales, you can look at the numbers and reduce tension.
6. Define The Communication Channels Between Marketing And Sales.
A good example of this is when the product manager can engage and interact directly with the sales team without asking for permission from the sales leader.
7. Increase Contact
Marketing team members and sales team members should establish a personal connection on any possible occasion like congresses, workshops, field visits, etc.
Closing Remarks
Often, the tension between Marketing and Sales is normal. However, the effort to improve the relationship between these 2 key organizations is surely worth it.
In fact, companies that integrate Marketing and Sales will enjoy better customer relationships, product development, and commercial success.
So, have you had any experience with marketing and sales conflict up till now? Feel free to share with me in the comments section. And subscribe to this blog for more on what you can do to avoid common challenges in medical device marketing.