Marketers are the chief cause of misalignment within the revenue-generating functions of B2B companies if results of my recent poll are representative of the business world (which it isn’t because of sample methodology and size). Even though the poll is not statistically representative (it is still open so please participate) results already point out a disturbing finding.
The poll asked the question, “What is the biggest obstacle to successfully aligning Marketing and Sales long term?” The choices given are:
- Culture–lack of commitment and trust
- Technology–lack of CRM, etc.
- Process–lack of a shared action plan
- Funnel–lack of funnel definitions, roles
- Skills–lack of the right skills in Marketing
Lack of the right skills within the Marketing organization has received 50% of the responses thus far. Lack of commitment and trust within Marketing and Sales is second most popular choice having been selected by 35% of the respondents. Lack of agreement to funnel stage definitions and roles is third most common obstacle to alignment with 14% of respondents.
Frankly, I was expecting culture and process to be the top two obstacles. Sure, I know that lack of B2B marketing skills is the root cause of much malaise in companies today, but I wasn’t expecting the respondents in the poll to believe overwhelmingly that marketers were the culprits in the offense of misalignment.
What do you think? If you haven’t taken the poll yet, please do.
