Nuts & Bolts: Fast Facts
Sales and Marketing in the Driver’s Seat
September 2007
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Shifting business priorities and organizational emphasis over the past few years have created an ebb and flow between disciplines within the marketplace, according to a 2007 Aberdeen report, State of the Market. In a survey of businesses in 13 different industries, 3,670 survey respondents placed a clear emphasis on sales and marketing instead of on the previous focus, manufacturing.
According to the report, “the revolving door phenomenon,” swinging between manufacturing and sales and marketing, “reflects the marketplace du jour and hinges on the ebb and flow of supply and demand, leapfrogging technologies, mergers, acquisitions and a sundry of other factors.” The table below depicts the five categories respondents emphasize as most relevant to today’s market.
The study also listed secondary business drivers for sales and marketing. Drilled down into three categories, 18 percent of respondents favored new product introduction, 17 percent emphasized customer validation and 16 percent chose sales enablement as an important factor.
The renewed emphasis on sales and marketing is supported by an improvement in customer relationship management (CRM) software technology, according to the report. Fifty-two percent of respondents indicated reputation and customer satisfaction as the reason behind an increase in technology investments, such as CRM. The report also finds the increase in enterprise resource planning (ERP) over the past decade represents a significant shift from back-office technologies to more desktop applications, creating a better investment discipline balance between sales and marketing.
—Kate DeBevois
According to the report, “the revolving door phenomenon,” swinging between manufacturing and sales and marketing, “reflects the marketplace du jour and hinges on the ebb and flow of supply and demand, leapfrogging technologies, mergers, acquisitions and a sundry of other factors.” The table below depicts the five categories respondents emphasize as most relevant to today’s market.
The study also listed secondary business drivers for sales and marketing. Drilled down into three categories, 18 percent of respondents favored new product introduction, 17 percent emphasized customer validation and 16 percent chose sales enablement as an important factor.
The renewed emphasis on sales and marketing is supported by an improvement in customer relationship management (CRM) software technology, according to the report. Fifty-two percent of respondents indicated reputation and customer satisfaction as the reason behind an increase in technology investments, such as CRM. The report also finds the increase in enterprise resource planning (ERP) over the past decade represents a significant shift from back-office technologies to more desktop applications, creating a better investment discipline balance between sales and marketing.
—Kate DeBevois
SALES AND MARKETING DRIVERS 2007
Customer Acquisition: 42 percent
Market Awareness: 41 percent
Customer Retention: 39 percent
Demand Creation: 26 percent
Other: 51 percent
Source: Aberdeen Group, 2007
Companies Mentioned:
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