What do CEO’s really want from their Sales & Marketing teams?

Let’s face it, the bottom line for every CEO is increasing business, meeting their revenue goals and being more profitable! If their Sales and Marketing teams can meet those demands, then most CEO’s are happy with that. They really don’t care if their Sales and Marketing teams are aligned, because if they are on target, then they simply assume that they are aligned.  Again, they don’t care if the type of content or assets their Marketing department creates is working or not, as long as they stay within their budgets and produce enough leads to continue to drive revenue. Most CEO’s just want positive results. Look, I’m not saying that these CEO’s are callus or indifferent, but they are the “Buyer” of what their Sales & Marketing teams deliver and they don’t care how they solve the problem as long as the problem gets solved. If they need to know what time it is, all they want is a clock. They don’t care what it took to create the clock as long as it will tell them what time it is on a consistent basis.

So, if you happen to be a solution provider, like myself, and you think that the solution you provide will get Sales & Marketing teams better aligned, or improve the quality of their content, or make their sales people more effective and if you can’t show them quickly how that will impact the 3 things I mentioned above, then it isn’t part of their daily thought process. I’ve seen too many marketing campaigns and sales presentations concentrate on the details and nuts and bolts of how they can fix it, and wind up losing the sale because the prospect was only interested in whether or not they could fix it and that’s all. Because, like they say “the devil is in the detail.”

One thing that is frustrating for many sales people is when they know that they can solve a problem but can’t find the right person who cares about that. Another thing is, educating the prospect about a problem that you believe they have when they don’t quite see it. Now, if you have a prospect that isn’t hitting their sales goals and delivering the profit they want, then you have a better chance of getting their attention because they are in pain. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time.

There are so many solution providers out there and so many different solutions that claim to help organizations increase business, revenues and profits that it’s like the weight loss industry. There are so many companies claiming to deliver their promise that it just becomes noise. I know I haven’t broken the code and delivered any great epiphany into what CEO’s want. They want what they have always wanted and will want in the future, which is exactly what I stated in the first sentence of this article. So, if you are going to get their attention, you really need to wow them with something new that will shake them out of their status quo and fix a pain they can buy into, or you will just be part of the noise. At least that’s the way I see it, what say you?