Five Strategic Steps to Align Sales, Marketing, and Procurement for Optimal Performance

It's long been recognized that sales and marketing functions within an organization often find themselves at odds, which may seem counterintuitive considering that a successful, growing company requires both functions to work together seamlessly to attract and retain clients. However, more often than not, marketing points fingers at sales for not converting leads, while sales blames marketing for not generating enough high-quality leads for them to close. It's a perpetual cycle of frustration.

In my three decades of navigating the tension between sales and marketing, I've come to realize that another player in this dynamic, procurement, adds further complexity to the relationship. This group often dictates the vendor partnerships that sales and marketing rely on to thrive. However, the intangible costs comprising the marketing supply chain are often disregarded, putting valuable partnerships at risk in favor of cost-cutting measures.

This very challenge led my company, The Marek Group, to develop Triptych. A triptych, by definition, is a piece of artwork or display consisting of three panels or sections, typically hinged together side by side. Each panel can stand alone as a separate piece of art, but they are designed to be viewed together as a unified whole. Similarly, the most successful companies achieve harmony between sales, marketing, and procurement, creating a cohesive framework that reduces the cost of sales without impeding growth.

How is this achieved? I contend that there are five key steps to aligning these teams for success:

1. Utilize Sales Enablement or Channel Enablement software, such as Triptych, to streamline sales content creation and delivery. These platforms empower sales to select and personalize content to drive conversations toward closing deals. Marketing can maintain brand standards and control personalization options to ensure messaging remains targeted and compliant. Procurement, in turn, can configure vendors to deliver content per pre-negotiated contracts and agreements.
2. Consolidate your vendor pool and hold them accountable to a mutually agreed-upon Master Services Agreement. This empowers marketing to uphold quality across all channels, allows procurement to leverage spending for better rates or volume discounts, and assures sales that anticipated deliveries will arrive in advance of their scheduled meetings.
3. Harness business intelligence tools embedded in your enablement platform to track and measure the success not only of your marketing campaigns but also of the content used to close deals. For instance, Triptych can monitor sales usage of specific offers, preferred headlines, selected images, and more. These insights enhance marketing attribution throughout the entire sales funnel.
4. Task procurement with creating a vendor scorecard and reviewing it regularly. Top-tier companies welcome scorecards to ensure alignment with their customers to achieve mutual goals. Regular reviews, ideally quarterly or biannually, facilitate prompt resolution of issues and identify any systemic problems requiring attention.
5. Optimize your marketing supply chain to allocate more budget to sales and marketing tactics and reduce administrative costs. Evaluate areas such as freight costs for content delivery to sales teams, expenses associated with multi-step marketing campaigns involving multiple vendors, agency fees for content versioning, inventory management versus just-in-time manufacturing, postage optimization, and more.

In conclusion, navigating the complex interplay between sales, marketing, and procurement is crucial for driving sustainable growth and success in today's competitive landscape. While tensions between these functions are common, they can be effectively managed through strategic alignment and collaboration. By implementing initiatives like Enablement software, consolidating vendor partnerships, leveraging data analytics, establishing vendor scorecards, and optimizing the marketing supply chain, organizations can foster a harmonious relationship that maximizes efficiency, minimizes costs, and enhances overall performance.

The journey towards achieving synergy among sales, marketing, and procurement requires commitment, communication, and a shared vision for success. As companies embrace this holistic approach, they can create a unified framework that not only streamlines operations but also unlocks new opportunities for innovation and growth. By viewing sales, marketing, and procurement as integral parts of a cohesive whole, organizations can transcend the traditional barriers and pave the way for sustained excellence in today's dynamic business environment.