by Lori Siragusa,
President, Inline Marketing Partners

In nearly two decades of working with technology companies, I have seen some deeply entrenched thinking among entrepreneurial firms and investors that has hindered good companies with strong offerings from becoming truly successful businesses.

While young companies obviously face enumerable challenges and an array of pitfalls can be cited, these three traps relate specifically to flawed sales and marketing thinking.

They are detrimental because they can create highly counterproductive environments for young organizations, bringing revenue generation to a crawl:

Trap #1: Believing sales and marketing are the same function

I’ve heard many executives, as well as VCs, state that “sales and marketing are the same, there’s really no difference between the two.”

I’m not sure if this is some recent fad they read, or if they really don’t understand that sales and marketing are two entirely different functions that require completely different skill sets to perform effectively.

Most business development professionals wouldn’t know how to develop a detailed marketing strategy and budget, manage designers, writers, programmers, printers, e-marketing vendors, nor handle the details involved in the production of marketing programs.

Likewise, most marketing professionals wouldn’t know how to build a sales compensation plan, negotiate a complex sales contract or lead a successful sales force. And the point is––neither person should have to.

Sales and marketing are neither synonymous nor interchangeable. The head of business development and the chief marketing officer and/or marketing director each bring unique skills, talents and capabilities to the table, combining their skills toward one common goal––to help the company drive revenue.

Executives and their funding partners must break from this mindset and treat both functions as mission-critical to the success of the business, separate but equal partners in a highly dependent relationship. Only then will your organization be able to hit its short and longer term revenue goals.

Trap #2: Thinking it is OK to have the head of sales/business development also “manage” the marketing function

Ironically, the fallacy that sales and marketing are interchangeable often leads smack into this next trap and it’s a costly one.

For entrepreneurial firms, the need for sophisticated marketing is inversely proportional to the size of the organization––the smaller the firm, the greater the need.

Yet instead of treating marketing as a strategic business function and investing in experienced marketing leadership, they relegate the function to the head of sales/business development, thinking that person can simply manage both (after all, they really are the same, right?)

Wrong again. First, the head of sales in an entrepreneurial or small business doesn’t “manage” marketing at all. Because they choose not to bring on experienced marketing leadership, they end up literally performing the various marketing functions.

I have seen more sales executives pulling their hair out trying to write copy, design a product sheet or attempting to coordinate an e-marketing campaign when they should be focused on developing sales strategies and closing deals.

This is when things start slipping through the cracks. Marketing starts to falter, then as a result, sales start to suffer.

When sales are impacted, the whole company suffers. Attempts to alleviate the sales executive’s workload by hiring a marketing person often backfire because the new hire is typically a junior-level marketing person instead of the seasoned marketing executive that should be an integral member of the management team.

As the business development person’s frustration levels mount and marketing tasks continue to conflict with their ability to meet quota, they may resign.

Clearly, this model is counterproductive, inefficient and costly. The person responsible for generating revenue for the entire company should not have to struggle between the two functions when both are absolutely vital to the company’s success.

Executives and their funding partners who currently have the head of sales serving in this dual role must change this model as soon as possible. The head of sales must be focused on the function they were trained to perform and manage.

Likewise, marketing must be regarded as a strategic business function and must be led by an expert. By recognizing this, your organization has a far greater chance to hit its goals.

Trap #3: Putting off an investment in marketing until sales are generated.

This is the classic “chicken or the egg” argument, and it’s an extremely common trap. Instead of making even a modest, but consistent investment in marketing to start the awareness and credibility-building process and begin filling the pipeline, management decides it needs to land some deals first.

Just to clarify, these are not companies with product in R&D or in beta who want to ensure they have a viable offering before launching. I’ve heard this from companies with products ready to be sold and implemented, as well as companies who have received enough funding to dedicate a solid percentage toward marketing initiatives.

When management takes this tact, the sales team is forced to conduct missionary sales. And yes, through sheer determination, they do manage to land a handful of early adopter clients.

However, this early success frequently lulls management deeper into the mindset that marketing isn’t necessary, because after all, the sales team proved it can bring in deals without spending money on marketing.

The reality is, there are few sales professionals that can keep up this grueling effort for any sustained length of time without the help of marketing to continually generate warm leads. Warm prospects already have some sense of who you are, what your company does, why it’s different, and why they should consider doing business with you.

Missionary work with no marketing means that every prospect interaction becomes an arduous education process. The result is an increase in the length of the sales cycle, the pipeline becomes thin and sales come to a grinding halt.

Executives and VCs must commit to putting a viable marketing strategy in place, even a modest one, from the time the company launches to market.

Building awareness, establishing credibility and effectively tell your story takes time.

Without programs in place to do these things, you not only put your short term, go-to-market goals in jeopardy, but you can prevent your organization from ever gaining enough momentum to carry it over the wall from an entrepreneurial start-up to a firmly established business.

Perhaps it’s time to take a close look and determine if you organization has fallen into one or more of these traps. If so, breaking free of them will unlock your organization’s potential and help it achieve the desired sales and business objectives––and ultimately, the desired exit strategy.

Inline Marketing Partners provides on-demand marketing director services for technology companies who need seasoned marketing leadership and expertise to accelerate business growth.

On the Web: www.inlinemarketingpartners.com

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