Sep 30, 2014

Christmas trees cause Christmas

Sales and marketing must work together.


The article discusses the evolving landscape of sales and marketing in technology startups, challenging outdated assumptions that doubling revenue necessitates doubling the sales team and that salespeople can independently generate new business. The author argues that many management teams still operate under mindsets from the 1980s and 1990s, leading to ineffective strategies for generating a qualified pipeline and meeting revenue targets.

It highlights that salespeople are often ineffective at prospecting, dislike demand generation, and cannot sustain prospecting efforts long-term; thus, they fulfill demand rather than create it. To address these issues, the article proposes several solutions: integrating sales and marketing efforts (“SMARKETING”), rigorously utilizing CRM systems to track metrics, building a strong word-of-mouth reputation, establishing a dedicated sales development team, leveraging PR and social media consistently, engaging with relevant networks, and calculating the necessary qualified pipeline generation.

Ultimately, success in high-volume sales models requires a combination of marketing-driven demand generation and effective sales fulfillment rather than simply expanding the sales force.

Read the full article here.

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