Where is the Disconnect between Sales and Marketing in B2B Business?

Marketing and sales look like siblings working in tandem. Marketing creates opportunities and Sales in enchases those opportunities. Together they make a rosy picture.

Having worked for few weeks in a B2B sales profile I can say that when it comes to B2B business, Sales and Marketing behaves like distant cousins. They no longer work in tandem and there is a huge disconnect between them.

I will try to explore where and why this disconnect? Why it should not be there?

B2B business is driven by motivated sales team rather than Marketing evangelists. Marketing people do play a role but it is at the very high level. They have very less clue of what is exactly happening on the ground level. On the other hand sales people think that they are the ones who are putting up all the hard work on the ground. They are the ones who are actually connecting with channel partners, promoting the brand and bringing in the numbers. They pay special focus on developing a channel through channel partners as most of the business is done through them only in most of the cases. Mostly sales force relies on their contacts to build and expand this channel. They will use pricing, products differentiation and every trick in the book to build channel. But they forget one important aspect in this whole picture, “Branding”. But this is not their prerogative; marketing people should be doing it!!!

In B2B scenario one can say that Marketing team has fewer stakes as they don’t have to reach to individual customers. Their target audience is greatly reduced. Marketing people think that it’s responsibility of Sales team to develop the channel and they spend virtually no effort in marketing the company to the channel partners. The whole focus is on customers who do not interact with the company directly, but through the channel partners. What an irony!!!
Hence the disconnect lies in sales and marketing teams approach towards channel partners. Both of these teams have individual plan in isolation and seldom seem to work in tandem to tap these channel partners.

One solution to this issue is to have a marketing team dedicated to market the company to the channel partners. Their effort should be in sync with the effort of marketing team focusing on brand building and marketing to customers. This marketing team should work on branding collaterals, special programs, promotional schemes focused on channel partners. At the same time Sales people should work closely with this team to make them aware about their requirements.

Common sense should prevail…Soon…

Marketing: A rocket science??

Marketing is considered proprietary to Pepsi colas and HULs. It is considered as something done inside the glass ceilings. But have even experienced marketing tactics (if not strategy) adopted by smart businessmen running small showrooms.

Marketing and Small showrooms may sound like a oxymoron but believe me effective marketing strategies are adopted at these place at virtually no cost. Let’s dwell it into a bit more.

Making connection with customer is what every marketer strives for. Look at Airtel ads, they are really able to make that connection, but at a stupendous cost. Recently I visited a small apparel showroom. The way the shop keeper was able to connect with my family was overwhelming. The moment we entered we got acknowledgment of familiarity from his side. Then he started to connect with me by talking about his relatives doing MBA and working with blue chips companies. At the same time he talked about apparel choices of young people. With my family he connected by talking about my marriage.

I think me must have read some book on physiology. Something likes “Iceberg”. Nonetheless that worked wonders for him and he was successfully able to convert our visit into sales. He did a great job in marketing plus sales. Marketing by conveying functional benefits the product offers, building authenticity by sharing that he himself uses the brand, boasting about reputation of his showroom etc. At the same time he successfully performed the sales by felicitating customer to make an intelligent choice.

Without ATL, above the line (phew!!!) advertisement he conveyed information about product once customer arrives. He just relies on word of mouth which further depends on how well he markets/serves to his existing customers. So he just has those 30 minutes to market as well as perform sales. The real moment of truth…So even without iota of knowledge about marketing /sales fundamentals shopkeepers often do wonders in their businesses.

This was just one side of the coin. Now look at the other side.

Do you really think big empires like P&G, Coke, Adidas can do the same thing? Because of their sheer size their distance from customers is huge. So they need to have number of channels to get sensitized about customer needs and to connect with customer. At the same time they sell their products through resellers and not directly (mostly). This makes it even more difficult for them to reach customers. So they need marketing plans, advertisement plans, and what not to sell the products.

All this makes me wonder if marketing is just about common sense or hi-fi strategy docs. Do I really need to study marketing courses or I will learn through experience. I am still figuring it out…

Give up the control and flourish

Visiting big retail chain and watching thousands of products displayed elegantly has always been an exhilarating experience for me. One hundred types of Soups, great variety of organic food, stimulating collection of sausages has always given the kick to gourmet like me. But never in my life had I tried to explore the reason, why retail chains emphasize so much on display of products. Marketing aficionados told me that the reason is obvious, not even worth discussing. More product display means better exposure, which further coerce customers to buy, which otherwise they would not have bought. For the good marketing student which I am, I took the logic and convinced myself that the use of million square feet of floor space to display products is to stimulate latent customer needs and in process fuel sale.

But one day something happened which impelled me to question this fundamental, which for me was nothing less than a gospel. I was buying toffee from small mom and pop store. The shopkeeper took the money, signaled me to take anything I want for the sum I paid and turned his face away. Now I had the choice to pick any thing I want to. I don’t have to wait for shopkeeper to handover the things to me. I felt liberated, literally. I felt like a free bird. Like a true iconoclast I wasted no time to frame perspective of my own about the whole situation.

Displaying items alone can’t make customer buy anything. But the display of products in retails is meant to give control in the hands of customers. It makes them feel liberated. He thinks that he has been emancipated. This emancipation is manifested in his purchase behavior. He ends up buying bizarre products, which otherwise he would not have bought.

Given an option to choose between two restaurants, one would tend to choose the restaurant with more choices, even though he may always order the same things. This happens because more options mean more control. More control aggravates his latent needs.

This perspective can be extended to plenty of other areas also.

Business model of Dell for mass customization, millions of tariff plans by telecom service providers, elaborated menu all put the control in the hand of customer and lets him decide his fate.

So if you want to boost those falling sales curve go ahead and give the control in the hands of the customer. He will for sure pay you back, generously.

Convergence of external and internal Positioning makes all the difference!!!

Mesmerizing TVC (Television Commercials) of Vodafone, erstwhile Hutch positions it as a brand which believes in breaking stereotypes. This external positioning is in sync with the young Indian population, oozing with confidence and ready to take off. This refreshing positioning of Vodafone is reflected in its every aspect like brochures, Vodafone shops, customer care executives.

Now consider a scenario where internally employees (including prospective) perceives Vodafone as a company which uses obsolete systems and processes, with poorly trained staff, confused objectives and what not. Then do you think it will be able to hold to its external positioning of a young and cool company?

Employees and prospective employees are company’s internal customers, hence positioning for the internal employees should be on the dot, as well.

We all know the kind of image Google has in the eyes of the employees. Do you think it’s by fate Google achieved this? Certainly not! It was a vision of Google’s founders to brand their company to the employees in a way which also communicates what they are best at, Breaking stereotypes. They introduced the measures like work for one day for your own ideas, offices like play grounds and many more. As a result it’s a dream company of every software evangelist. The speed at which its new innovative products are coming justifies Google’s positioning, both internal and external. Even more, Apple has positioned its company in a way that has attracted the best talent of the industry, which has clearly translated into its artistic products.

I want to emphasize that two seeming different positioning, external and internal are infact not different. And if they are, then brand is bound to suffer. Take State Banks, they are trying their level best to change their external positioning but are taking too long to bring about the change. The reason is that internally they are still the same. Their employees are still the same and take their banks in the same old way. Hence despite flashy posters, big advertisement, core banking softwares people still take them as old shabby organizations.

Hence convergence of internal and external positioning is must to leverage the synergy between the two and to take the organisation from Good to Great.

Why are we still a third world country in SERVICE MARKETING?

I resisted for long to write on this topic but in the last few weeks so many things have shaped and prejudiced my thought process, so here I am with one more perspective.

Prima facie Service Marketing is such an innocuous term. Every college student dreams of opening a dhaba or restaurant, without even knowing what Service means. Almost all of us have had horrifying experiences with one or the other service. Movie halls, Bus ticket vendors, Restaurants, Banks, Telecom service provider, everyone has brazenly and blatantly swindled the customers in one or the other grotesque (literally) act. In India despite the presence of legendary companies the service levels have been pathetic.

Vision Statement of India’s leading telecom service provider: "To provide global telecom services and delight customers."

With customer care call waiting time that could even run into days, one has every right to mock at these statements. These statements and company actions are so paradoxical in nature, that one wonders what is a need of these empty bunch of words tied together with loose thread of hypocrisy . We deceitfully preach “atithi devo bhavah” but we barely follow the spirit lying underneath these words.

Let’s try to explore where and why the, disconnect lies.

CXOs may come up with fancy customer focused statements sitting in their AC and sound proof chambers (to customer’s voice) but they will not be able to translate it into customer satisfaction until they make efforts to sync goals and actions of every function (Marketing, Operations, HR etc) with the Mission Vision statements. Focus should be on removing the huge disconnection between the people framing the policies and people on the ground.

The most important “P” of service marketing is “People”, undoubtedly. Service marketing is all about people on the ground. They are the ones who will either make it or break it. But with most of the companies outsourcing their recruitment process in parts or fully, how can they expect to hire people befitting their needs.

In service industry one needs to “Hire for attitude, train for skills” (statement: courtesy Guru PVR) but companies are trying to do exactly the opposite. They are hiring based on certain facts on CVs and trying inculcating attitude. One may argue on the feasibility of hiring for attitude but great companies know how to do this also. Take Singapore airlines or Hilton hotel, they have mastered the process of screening and hiring people for attitude. They know Training can only act as reinforcement and nothing more.

So next time while you are standing in front of huge BSNL advertisement, your call gets disconnected due to network congestion, press redial and call again. You literally have no alternative. We still are and will remain a third world country in Service Marketing at least for the coming decade.

E Campaigning @ Lok Sabha Polls 2009

If some US politician would have made a Face book profile for election campaign nobody would have given it a damn. Or let’s say if some EU politician would have given banner ads on internet then also nobody would have given it a damn.

Now take this…

Some Indian politicians (Parties) have hired a team of internet marketing evangelists and bloggers and to campaigning for upcoming LS elections. Guys few of them even don’t know what Internet is and how to use it. Call it an e-blitz or “Obama Effect” but it is definitely capturing the balls of lots of people.

Parties like BJP are particularly very active on internet communities these days. One can see Mr. Advani everywhere starting from Blogs, websites, YouTube, Orkut. You name it and he will be there. In fact BJP has reserved 10% of the total budget for e-campaigning which is 9% higher than the previous e-campaigning budget. I came across these interesting urls

Advani's Blog has 6586 members, 2940 topics, and 9354 posts and has blogs in Hindi also!!!

Advani @ Campus First of its kind of initiative to mobilize College goers!!!

BJP is relying on e campaigning more than congress. This can be attributed to the fact that Congress has Rahul Gandhi to charm the younger generation so ball is in BJP’s court to make the cut.

Let’s look from the marketing angle to find out why all this makes sense:

You might have read this umpteen times that we are a young country with 500 million plus youngsters but now even political parties seems to understand this well. They have got their Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning on the dot. This e campaign is precisely targeting this young generation who seem to live their life in their inboxes.

E campaigns are 360 degree campaigns where perspective voters can freely e interact with the candidates. This provides an opportunity to the political parties to tilt the inclination of voter in their favor.

Now let’s look at the other side of the coin:

India has around 40 million direct internet users from all the age groups. One can add another 60 million who access internet from cyber cafes or from their college labs. 100 million is definitely a big number and can make that difference. But having said that one must realize that the attitude of, this 100 million and growing tribe is indifferent towards politics. Lots of them care a damn about what BJP or Congress can do to them. They are busy writing their destiny with their own hands. Though the campaigns like Jaago Re have been launched to address this very issue but their effectiveness is questionable.

Also with heavily skewed population distribution in favor of small towns and villages, reach of this e campaign is very limited.

Hence this e blitz may not translate into votes at all.

“Much can be said on either side”.

Let’s enjoy the ambiguity till May 2009 and then during post mortem I will present one more perspective on effectiveness of the e campaigns in politics in a truly political manner ;)