Matt Heinz joins me on the Salesman Podcast to discuss if there is an impending merger of sales and marketing in medium-large companies.
I start the show by asking if sales and marketing teams should be pulled together under one roof in large enterprises or if there are specific reasons why they should be kept separate.
The same pipeline
Matt brings up a great point right out of the gate and that is that most companies do not have the same CRM and pipeline management systems across their sales and marketing teams. This means that they are potentially pulling in different directions or not sharing data which could easily be used to close more business.
“Marketing need to know that their job is not to generate campaigns, not to generate leads. Their job is to create sales pipeline”
I personally see the future of sales relying more and more on this marketing information with the sales person then adding layers of value on top which is something that computers simply can’t do.
Should salespeople be thought leaders?
I often promote that for the individual salespersons career they should be creating content and becoming known as experts in their field. Matt however suggests that from a senior management perspective this is not the best use of time for the salesman – they are employed to sell.
Matt’s standpoint is that marketing should be giving salesmen both leads and the content to share on their networks. Freeing up their time to build relationships and closing the deals which pushing content just can’t do.
Are sales reps being cut out?
With an increase of content marketing by businesses, the buyer is becoming more informed about the product before they even meet us salesmen. I ask Matt how he thinks this is going to effect sales cycles and complex B2B sales in the future.
Networking – the one reason we will always need salesmen
We wrap up the show by discussing the number one reason why I think we will always need to employ a real, physical salesperson to close leads that have been handed down through the sales funnel and that is networking. It’s virtually impossible to substitute a human conversation with someone when they’re nearly ready to by and no content or video can replace this.
Guest info:
Prolific author and nationally recognized, award-winning blogger, Matt Heinz is President and Founder of Heinz Marketing with 15 years of marketing, business development and sales experience from a variety of organizations and industries. He is a dynamic speaker, memorable not only for his keen insight and humor, but his actionable and motivating takeaways.
Matt’s career focuses on consistently delivering measurable results with greater sales, revenue growth, product success and customer loyalty. Matt is a repeat winner of Top 50 Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management and Top 50 Sales & Marketing Influencers.
Show notes:
- HeinzMarketing.com
- Successful social Selling – Free ebook download
