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SALES & MARKETING

Using Analytics to Align

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Sales and Marketing Teams

by Andris A. Zoltners , PK Sinha and Sally E. Lorimer
Who’s Your Most Valuable Salesperson?
November 08, 2018

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Many companies struggle to deliver a consistent and easy buying
experience for their customers.

Connected Strategy: A
Toolkit for Building
Consider the following scenario: A manager wants to purchase some Continuous Customer...
computer software for her business. She asks an analyst on her team to BOOK

do an online search for information. The analyst recommends a $99.95

particular software company’s solution. The manager peruses that View Details
company’s website and requests more information by entering data
about her needs through a webform. The software company emails
relevant materials which the manager reviews before reaching out to an
inside salesperson with questions.

But then things begin to break down. The inside salesperson hasn’t seen
the webform data, so the manager must repeat much of the information
she had already entered. Furthermore, some of the advice the inside
salesperson shares contradicts what the manager recalls reading on the
website. The manager decides to meet with a field salesperson to get
clarity and to work out some details for a quote. Then, just days after
receiving the quote, the manager gets an unsolicited email from the
software company’s marketing team offering a better deal. The
mounting number of inconsistencies and redundancies confuse and
frustrate the manager. At the same time, the software company has
wasted time and resources on duplicate, uncoordinated, and ineffective
marketing and sales outreach.

As customers have begun interacting with sellers through websites,

emails, texts, social media posts, print and TV ads, and salespeople, it’s
become difficult for companies to synchronize these communications.
(The profusion of independent information sources, such as customer
reviews and price comparison sites, adds to the confusion.) When it’s
time to actually buy, customers may do so via purchasing portals,
internet chat reps, call centers, field salespeople, or other sources.

Customers move frequently and unpredictably between these various

channels when buying. For simple purchases, they might buy online
exclusively. For complex purchases, they might start with online
information, then talk with salespeople, and then return to online
sources to validate what the salespeople said. The buying process is no
longer linear or consistent.

For companies that sell to businesses, meeting the buying needs of

today’s customers requires a mindset shift. Companies need an
orchestrator to ensure marketing and sales outreach is well-coordinated
and aligned with customer buying needs. In some cases, the orchestrator
is a computer system. In other cases, the orchestrator is a person
enabled by data and analytics.

Amazon is a prime example of a company using a computer system to

effectively orchestrate customer buying. Amazon’s analytics use data to
make inferences about what products each customer might buy. The
analytics also suggest an automated–yet coordinate–way to reach each
customer with the right offer at the right time. For example, Amazon
makes customized purchase suggestions on its website. If a customer
clicks on a suggestion but doesn’t purchase, Amazon can follow up with
a reinforcing email or post on the social media platform the customer
uses. Companies are using computer-based orchestration frequently
with business customers, especially for smaller accounts and simpler
purchases.

For larger accounts and more complex purchases, companies are giving
account managers responsibility for orchestrating marketing and sales
outreach to customers. In their expanded role, account managers decide
what the company should offer each customer, along with the best
message timing and delivery channel (e.g. digital message, phone call,
personal visit). Account managers are more effective when they are
armed with insights from data and analytics.

For example, a telecom company used predictive analytics to help

account managers orchestrate outreach to under-performing, high-
potential customers. The analytics found “data doubles” for these
customers – i.e. similar customers who were buying much more. The
company shared insights with account managers about which customers
had significant unrealized opportunity and what sales strategies had
worked previously for their data doubles. The insights helped account
managers offer the right products with the right sales messages, thus
increasing sales at under-performing accounts.

In another example, a pharmaceutical company used a computerized

suggestion engine to help account managers orchestrate the sharing of
prescription drug information with physicians. The company provided
physicians with information through various sales team members (e.g.
account manager, reimbursement specialist, medical science liaison) and
marketing channels (e.g. emails, podcasts, mobile apps, invites to
conferences, company website). By examining data about each
physician’s situation and preferences, the suggestion engine told account
managers which actions, and the timing of those actions, were likely to
produce the best results. This allowed account managers to tailor
communication to each physician’s needs. For example, an account
manager might get a message on his tablet: “Dr. Jones just logged on to
the company’s website to investigate drug side effects. Suggest visiting
Dr. Jones to discuss her concerns.” During the visit, Dr. Jones asks about
drug effectiveness and mentions she hates receiving unsolicited email.
The account manager updates Dr. Jones’ profile to stop marketing emails
and asks a company medical science liaison to call Dr. Jones to answer
her questions. By tracking physician preferences, behaviors and results,
and sharing insights with account managers, the company continually
improved its relationships with physicians.

More companies and industries are taking on the challenge of

orchestrating marketing and sales outreach to align with modern
customer buying needs. As the volume, variety, and velocity of business
data escalate, analytics (including artificial intelligence) will play an even
bigger role in the effort to improve the customer buying experience.

Andris A. Zoltners is a professor emeritus at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School

of Management. He is a cofounder of ZS Associates, a global business consulting firm, and a
coauthor of a series of sales management books, including The Power of Sales Analytics.

PK Sinha is a cofounder of ZS Associates, a global business consulting firm. He teaches

sales executives at the Indian School of Business and is a coauthor of a series of sales
management books, including Building a Winning Sales Force.

Sally E. Lorimer is a marketing and sales consultant and a business writer for ZS
Associates, a global business consulting firm. She is a coauthor of a series of sales
management books, including Sales Compensation Solutions.

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3 COMMENTS

SCOTT BOBER 2 years ago

The most common technology used to coordinate and collaborate among different
departments is a CRM. Interestingly, I exhibited both extremes - really good and really bad
- when I led a project team to select a CRM partner recently. The Salesforce team
practiced what they preached, and collaborated between marketing, inside sales and
outside reps. That was one of the key reasons they won our business, over their
competitor - who exhibited several of the uncoordinated efforts mentioned in the article.

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