There’s some friction between marketing and sales departments when it comes to the sales tools (such as collateral, ROI calculators, proposal content) used to win new customers, according to a new survey from KnowledgeTree. The survey uncovered significant gaps in perception between both parties, with 87% of marketers believing they provide the right set of tools to salespeople, but only two-thirds of salespeople agreeing.
There’s an even bigger gap when it comes to the accessibility of these tools: while 84% of marketers feel they make it easy to find those tools, only 51% of salespeople find them readily accessible. Moreover, while 68% of marketers report regularly updating sales tools, only 44% of salespeople agree.
The problems aren’t all on the marketing side of the equation, though. 72% of salespeople are confident that they’re using the right sales tools at the right time during the sales process, but 61% of marketers disagree. Knowing what tools are at their disposal would help – but there’s disagreement on this front, too: while three-quarters of salespeople believe they know all of the tools available to them, fewer than two-thirds of marketers surveyed feel that salespeople are aware of all the resources that they have created for them.
Finally, whereas 42% of marketing respondents strongly believe that the tools they create are reusable, salespeople only use the same tools 22% of the time. It’s not clear whether that’s an indictment of marketing, sales, or both. Regardless, the final takeaway? None of the salespeople were “strongly satisfied” with the tools provided by marketing to close the deal, although half were “satisfied.”
About the Data: The data is based on a survey of more than 100 marketers and salespeople conducted in March.
