Sales & Marketing Management - January/Februry 2008 - (Page 15) SMART MANAGEMENT evolve into buyer segments (what sales professionals fully grasp) as markets mature. Thankfully, this is a non-issue for start-up, fast-growing young companies. But don’t get too comfortable; your challenges will come. Here’s how it plays out: As sales volumes grow and new products are added, the need for marketing specialists become unequivocal. Marketing and communications professionals are transformed into product managers with special competencies in product definition, market sizing, promotion, pricing, collateral, distribution and, hopefully, customer research. The sales department begins its own tectonic journey of specialization, beginning with geographic territories, moving on to stratified sales units, progressing to the addition of field specialists and, finally, the creation of new, unique sales channels. At the peak of this division of responsibilities, there are multiple product managers attempting to access the sales department … by this time a well-defined fortress. Failure is near. This rigid model is highly susceptible to new value propositions promoted by competitors and, at times, requested by customers. Neither of these two highly specialized continents (marketing or sales) can do anything to stem the loss of customers to niche competitors. So it’s time for sales to do some marketing, specifically, buyer segmentation analysis. Using data gathered by market managers, the sales function needs group buyers to weigh in on how they want to buy. Accordingly, sales departments need to identify buyer populations for new, unorthodox coverage models based on buyers’ needs, not on historical sales coverage solutions. This critical planning effort will help determine buyer populations, product IF YOU HAVE SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO BE A MORE EFFECTIVE SALES OR MARKETING MANAGER, BE SURE TO VISIT requirements, revenue opportunities, sales coverage choices and sales messaging needs. The bottom line? It really is time for sales to bite the bullet and do some marketing. www.smmsoundoff.com AND SHARE YOUR IDEAS. www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 SALES &MARKETING MANAGEMENT 15 http://www.intercall.com http://www.intercall.com http://www.smmsoundoff.com http://www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com
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