Marketing is not producing leads
Most marketing courses derive their content on theories evolved for the consumer world. What works for soap powder and toothpaste will not work for complex products and long-sales cycles. Expensive branding and positioning investment is pointless if no-one knows who you are or what problems you can solve for them.

For those of us who need to market our businesses to other businesses our marketing resources must be aligned to sales results. Right now most companies struggle to do this.

Do Sales and Marketing have a common plan?
Probably not! 32% of sales and marketing departments blame each other for poor revenue growth.

However, only 21% of sales and marketing departments exchange ideas at least once or twice a year. (Source: Silverpop B2B Insight Survey August 2009)

Are Sales and Marketing aligned around shared objectives?
Every business has a plan. In fact there are often several plans; a sales plan, a marketing plan and a revenue plan. Are the plans the same? The metrics set out desired goals but are these goals ’shared’ by all the stakeholders? Is there a framework for translating goals into activities?

The alignment of Sales and Marketing remains a top priority for most companies. New research of 1,800 Sales Directors places it in the top 3 sales effectiveness issues to be addressed.
(Source: CSO Insights 2009).