It’s been well documented that quality of collaboration between sales and marketing directly impacts ROI.
The challenge that many organizations face is that their sales process is a black box. No one except the sales team knows what is going on inside the black box until a proposal or sale happens. Worse still, 80% of the leads that go into the sales black box are rarely seen again.
I’ve encountered many companies where sales and marketing do not jointly agree upon or understand their sales process. At the same time many do not understand their potential customers buying process. This makes it particularly challenging for marketers who are trying to measure their revenue contibution and ROI.
Process mapping is a well-known technique for creating a common vision and shared language for improving business results. However, this technique hasn’t been widely adopted by sales and marketing departments.
I read this excellent article By Michael J. Webb, President, of Sales Performance Consultants, on i Six Sigma. Webb explains how to avoid the common pitfalls of sales/buyer process mapping.
“Leaders in both large and small sales organizations often make mistakes that undermine the potential of process mapping. A common result, for example, is that salespeople ignore the process and operate outside the system,” writes Webb.
How to Avoid the Four Most Common Mistakes of Sales Process Mapping.
Kristin Zhivago’s book, Rivers of Revenue, has an excellent worksheet on how to map out the customers buying process for what she calls an intense scrutiny product (complex sale).
Webb’s four common mistakes that hinder success:
Webb’s principles That Yield Powerful Results:
Brian Carroll is the CEO of InTouch Inc. InTouch is a 50-person company focused on delivering effective lead generation solutions for “the complex sale.”
Brian authors the very interesting B2B Lead Generation Blog which focuses on B2B lead generation, sales leads, and marketing for the complex sale.
