communication | Krueger & Partner Ltd.

I never mind staying late at the office, not only because I hate coming in early, but also because it gives me the opportunity to chat with some colleagues. We’ve all seen them. The quiet, industrious people who clean up our mess and set us up for success the next day. My friend Juan Palacios hails from El Salvador and I know that many of the hustling yuppies who routinely ignore him, would benefit from the depth of his knowledge and business savy. He’s the proud owner of a new home and a thriving business which is constantly growing, even in this economy. His words have a curious urgency and his advice is excellent.

“Me entiendes Pablo?..” he always says with a smile.
“Por supuesto Don Palacios” I answer.

It’s a valuable transaction in which I help him understand English and some of our stranger American practices, while he provides me with fresh perspectives on the challenges I face daily. As with all such relationships it takes work and dedicated effort. It’s often difficult to push past the barriers of language, custom, and preconceptions, but we manage…we communicate. I’m afraid that I don’t see a lot of successful communication out there currently…time to wake up people!

Emerging markets? China? Again?

In the past our ancestors had to venture forth in search of new markets and new connections. They made enormous investments in time, money, and resources to get the job done. Often when poor preparation and bad decisions threatened their goals, they resorted to appalling tactics in their attempts to achieve them. Unfortunately, little has changed…globalization, the internet, and social media offer a plethora of tools and venues to facilitate the process. There are an ever increasing number of pitches, messages, i.e. “ships” sailing forth on cyber-seas, but with declining results. There’s ultimately only one central challenge- to quickly, concisely communicate the value proposition (and / or measurable ROI) of your solution to the right person, at the right time, and in the right way. Recently, I’ve noticed some formidable obstacles to meeting this challenge and I like to refer to them collectively as la tirania de las ideas preconcebidas or the tyranny of preconceptions.

“It doesn’t work for us…” said the CEO when referring to social media. Not swimming in leads…low Klout score…??? Social media is not some form of a checklist in which you just have to cover all the bases, but something that has to become part of your organization’s DNA…Like my relationship with Juan, it takes planning, dedication, and hard work. Define your goals, develop a plan to reach them, and pick the right vehicle(s).

“We gotta get in front of more people and we need more activity” claimed the VP of Sales. Following the traditional path is very comforting, customs always are, but you can’t expect to continue doing the same things and expect different outcomes. I ‘m very surprised that an executive from a growing technology solutions company seems fixated on the traditional Inside Sales / Outside Sales model. How can you expect continued growth when you don’t have any data on the average cost of sale? As another mentor of mine said “leading Sales organizations realize that accurate data improves efficiency and is the cure for bad results…”

“Do they even have money ?” responded the Chief Sales Officer of a European multinational to my enthusiasm over a simple RFP from the Central Bank of Venezuela. I was dumbfounded over this blatant display of ethnocentrism…preconceived notions…prejudice. Everyone likes the idea of global markets in theory, but in practice we’re still back in the days of Columbus. Business, indeed, opportunities are where you find them. You don’t have to commit to completely localizing your website or hiring a lot of multilingual staff. Ask yourself if your solution(s) would be useful and / or address the pains of organizations in different geographic areas. Then enlist the assistance of some experts who have the subject matter expertise to best represent you and your organization. The world’s as big or as small as you make it…leads, prospects, and business are literally all around you!

Can you dig it?

In many organizations there’s confusion around the Marketing Department’s actual role. “I see alot of activity, but I don’t see them producing any results…” lamented one C-Level Executive to me recently. “They host great events which our clients really enjoy attending, but I can’t grasp how they deliver real, concrete value to the bottom line…” he concluded.

This is unfortunately a commonly held opinion in many medium to large organizations and it’s especially troubling when the large annual Marketing budgets are taken into account. “We need them to generate leads which result in new business!” exclaimed a Senior Sales Director at a recent networking event. “Sales can make sure the clients are happy!”

Things are even more confusing in smaller organizations in which everyone “wears multiple hats” or is expected to make contributions in many different areas of the company and budget numbers are tight by necessity. “Do we even need to allocate a significant amount to Marketing? Shouldn’t Sales handle this as a routine part of doing business?” said one CEO / Founder.

Across the Great Divide the tone is similar, but the perspective completely different. I have spoken with many savvy Marketing Professionals who are completely perplexed. A colleague confided to me that Marketing “runs multiple lead generation campaigns which produce measurable results. Yet when we pass the fruits of our labors on to Sales…well nothing happens. The Sales people complain that the leads aren’t good and I don’t believe they make a real, consistent effort to follow up on them!”

Ah! Yes! So it goes…The results are countless meetings, “new and improved” Marketing plans, a lot of time and money wasted, and continuous rounds of “office politics”. Everyone likes to make a great show of group solidarity at the quarterly / annual meetings, but anyone with any level of professional experience knows that’s just not the case. Inevitable? Unavoidable? “Us vs. Them?” Let’s break it down as my daddy used to say:

Communication Rocks the Nation! (or at least can shake-up your organization in positive ways)

Sales and Marketing are supposed to work closely together. Yet often they are as far apart as possible, both physically and culturally, in a company. “The Sales people are disruptive, always on the phone, and joking around. I can’t get anything done when they’re around” says Marketing. “Why are the Marketing people in meetings all the time? They spend all their time creating charts and graphs? What do they do?” says Sales.

I believe that this Great Divide must be bridged and therefore Sales and Marketing should be working closely together…in every sense of the word. Marketing should be able to listen to Sale’s calls and recognize directly which messaging actually works. There should also be an informal atmosphere of collaboration. I know you’re tired of hearing this word, but it works. In addition Sales must also commit to a greater level of accountability in which they will not only make every effort to use what Marketing produces, but also give honest visibility into their pipelines.

At the end of the day everyone suffers if the Great Divide isn’t bridged successfully. I think that people can get lost in the idea of “playing the hero” and trying to make themselves and their department look good. In the end…everyone loses. So climb out of those trenches and take a walk down the hall. Ask your colleagues what they’re working on and share your work with them as well. Here it is again: