Revenue Journal®

One of the biggest barriers to your company's revenue growth is the battle that goes on every single day between marketers and salespeople. Each has legitimate grievances. Each group pays lip service to getting along - especially in your presence - but they really don't respect each other and they usually work at cross-purposes to each other. The smallest and the largest companies have this problem.

In the third article, we'll describe the solution and how you can put it to work.

Part 1 of 3:

Selling. It's a dog's life.

As a salesperson, I made cold calls - on the phone, by car, and on foot. At a very young age, I learned what happens when your selling efforts don't work, and you end up eating chicken wings, and nothing but chicken wings, for three weeks running because eating anything else means you can't afford to buy the gas you need to drive to your next cold call.

I personally made promises to my customers, because I was told by our product developers that "the product will be ready on July 15." A short time later, I had to go back to those same customers, hat in hand, and personally apologize because the product was not going to be ready on July 15. I made promises on behalf of the company, but it was my personal reputation that suffered when the company broke those promises.

I tried to get the marketers to understand how urgently I needed more and better selling tools. Like the dog begging for a stick to be thrown, I was at their mercy. My commission depended - in no small part - on their output, and they never seemed to understand the gravity or urgency of my need for selling tools that worked.

I sold all types of products and services. I got good at it, in spite of the shortage of good selling tools. I made good money. To make up for the selling tool shortage, I did what most salespeople do: I created my own presentations, sales letters, and mailers.

After working my way up into sales management, I decided that I wanted to become part of the solution rather than stay at the receiving end of the problem. I'd also decided, after mastering the art of cold calling, that there had to be a better way to start the selling relationship. Cold calls are tough on the caller and irritating for the customer. I shifted into in-house marketing, determined to do a good job of helping the salespeople sell.

So I began my life as a cat.

Part 2, next week: The cat's tale

Part 3, week after: How to get your dogs and cats to sing in harmony