If marketers are from Venus ... then salespeople must be from Mars: here are some guidelines for enabling these two conflicting cultures to work cooperatively together.

• Author: Schneider, Jim
• Position: Sales Management

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When it comes to sales, bank marketers are like comedian Rodney Dangerfield: They just don't get any respect. When a bank doesn't make its sales goals, who gets the blame? Marketing!

From salespeople, marketers may hear, "You don't drive enough traffic to our branches." "The lead lists you gave us were poor quality." Or, "The customer relationship management (CRM) system and new incentive plan don't work for us." From the CEO or chief financial officer, they may hear, "We're selling, but we're not making money on what we're selling."

Since clear direction by sales supervisors is the primary driver of sales effectiveness, the key question for marketers is, "What are you doing to make life easier for frontline supervisors?" Marketing's primary role in supporting sales has evolved from simply creating products and generating leads to helping supervisors focus their salespeople on the right behavior, the process and the sales opportunities to optimize profit contribution.

Marketers now have to do a better job of selling salespeople on using effectively the sophisticated new information and sales tools available to them. Salespeople are your customers, too.

Selling is simple, but it isn't easy

Our corporate sales assessments of hundreds of banks suggest that selling more at higher margins should be relatively simple for bankers. Approximately 3 to 5 percent of your customers represent most of your profit; most branches now produce only three to five core product sales per day per salesperson; and most add-on sales occur within the first 90 days of on-boarding. Also, banks are flooded daily with hundreds of inquiries about products and rates. CRM technology enables marketers to know which customers are most likely to buy and most likely to be profitable. And about 40 percent of business sales calls are reported but not made, or made with no clear sales purpose.

The reasons why helping supervisors sell more at higher margins isn't easy for marketers is that:

* Most banks don't have a well-defined sales process.

* The factors critical for success in selling differ by selling role.

* The profitability data typically isn't easily accessible to salespeople.

* Many bank sales leaders are uncomfortable with both selling and with giving specific sales direction.

The success factors missing from most bank sales cultures are focus, accountability and process. It isn't easy to establish focus, accountability and process when marketing and sales operate from vastly different perspectives. That's why the industry's best marketers follow a few simple principles to break down the barriers between sales and marketing. Let's look at these principles.

Forge a partnership with sales

When it comes to their business perspective, marketers--it often seen>-are from Venus, and salespeople are from Mars. Most of the conflict between marketing and sales stems from differences in their performance scorecards.

Marketers are often more concerned than salespeople with long-term results, profitability, adherence to the bank's branding and corporate sales process, and...