Strategy is a word that seems to have no limit in terms of Hyperbole or reference in everyday business-speak. Such Hyperbole usually leads to a loss of meaning, definition and purpose. The net impact is that organisations end up with business, sales and marketing strategies that are often not unified or complimentary.
“A high-level plan to achieve one or more goals under conditions of uncertainty…” [1].
This simple definition of what Strategy is may come from ancient Greece. However, it is still highly relevant in today’s Digital Transformation era as it sees Strategy as one top-down plan with several goals. Secondly, it acknowledges that a Strategy is a response to reducing business uncertainty and insight.
Why is this so important? Uncertainty and insights still represent one of the core board-level challenges for most organisations and industries, often a symptom of too many strategies that all have isolated goals.
Today there should only be one Strategy: customer growth and success. Such a strategy enables all of the other elements, operational, financial, production, sales and marketing, to support this singular Strategy.
So, Where to start?
Start with bringing together the two most significant customer engagement and growth engines. Equally, they can be the biggest inhibitors of growth, customer satisfaction and understanding.
So, What are they? They are the Sales and Marketing functions, Teams and Strategy.
So start with bringing together the Sales and Marketing Strategy.
What do both have in common? Both are focused on “Value Creation” [2], value creation for the organisation and the customer. Value creation comes from Knowledge, Insight and Understanding of internal and external customers’ behaviours and needs. Such Insights enable organisations to drive experience and performance [3].
So How to achieve this?
Start with a unified sales and marketing customer target, objective and, yes, Strategy. This can be made a reality by accessing relevant and accurate Customer Data Insight and Intent Data.
Start today with increasing Customer “Value Creation” through Data that drives a unified Sales and Marketing Strategy.
- Barad M (2017). Strategies and Techniques for Quality and Flexibility. Springer Briefs in Applied Sciences and Technology. Definitions of Strategies | SpringerLink
- Forbes (2019). What does Strategy Really Mean? What Does Strategy Really Mean? (forbes.com)
Havard Business Review (2014). Putting Sales at the Center of Strategy (hbr.org)
Posted on Thursday, July 14th, 2022.
