Attack of the Cymbal Monkeys

I can tell it’s the fourth quarter, and I needn’t look at a calendar. I can tell because my Inbox is full of white papers, webinars, events, retreats, off-sites, summits, books and speakers all of whom are out to solve the problem of sales and marketing just not playing nicely together.

Sigh.

Is there some realistic hope that by smiling a little more we will turn around this cesspool of a year in the home stretch? Will three months (two and a half really if you allow two weeks for people to observe the boozy Christmas haze) really make up for the previous nine months spent openly sabotaging each others’ programs and merrily stuffing each other under the revenue bus? I think not.

And for the record, I’m done with armies, football, Darwin, Glee and Texas Hold ‘Em

as metaphors for business. I think if you’re old enough to have a job then you’re probably smart enough to understand the roles of sales and marketing in the literal sense as groups of people who sell and other groups who market.

The industry that feeds off the dysfunction of large organizations has created a particular category of disaster around the misalignment of sales and marketing. Naturally, for $800 an hour they’ll come over and fix it or, if you’re on a budget, you can download the audiobook.  The Cymbal Monkeys (named for the marvelous, malevolent character from  Toy Story 3 who sounds the alarm when reasonable things are about to happen)  cite a number of things we need to do to get our sales and marketing folks rowing together like they do in the Teamwork Poster in the lunch room.

Over the next few weeks, let’s unpack some of my sales vs. marketing favourites, starting with this one:

Alignment Starts at the Top

So do regulatory compliance, mature comportment and many skin conditions. I don’t know about you but I haven’t actually seen all that much alignment between CMOs and heads of sales over the years. I’m sure it exists, and I’m sure it’s a pretty happy state to be in, but I just don’t buy it. Despite what they may tell the rest of us, a meeting between these two Overlords is more likely to end with a room strewn with animal crackers, damp spreadsheets and a distinct smell of urine in each of the corners.

Personally, I just don’t care if they get along or not. In fact, I think a lot of us use the salves vs. marketing conflict at the top as an Inertia Generator (you know you’ve done it) by taking things we don’t want to do and firing them directly into the fan so they can be blown all over the room and we can claim to be the splattered victims of our warring Corporate Overlords.

If this is you. And you feel guilty about it. My advice is just get on with things and make friends with the sales people across the table so you can both get through the day.

Next time: Salespeople are from Mars and Marketing People are Fresh from the Spa

Related Posts

The Furry Dead Things at the Unimpressed Feet of Sales
All Together Now. Blame Marketing

BizMarketer is written by Elizabeth Williams
I help companies have better conversations
Drop me a line at ewilliams@candlerchase.com
Or follow me @bizmkter

Image Credit: Jason Scragz