The Sales and Marketing Magic Quadrant

I know, it looks like I’m about to be cynical; but a guy has to have some fun once in a while (OK, maybe I’m always a bit cynical). Years of watching sales and marketing people have given me a jaded view of the world. Unless I was on some super unique journey, my guess is that while selling systems, sales coaches and marketing gurus are making tons of money selling you their ideas, your business is not making much money using their ideas. I’d like to propose that while many of these ideas are promoted as selling systems, they really aren’t systems at all; they are just procedures executed within a functional Sales silo (and you know what I think about that).

Probably the biggest problem in revenue generation is the fact that companies don’t view themselves as a system. As a result, processes within the organization tend to be disconnected and worse, they change each time a new personality comes on board. Take a look at how often sales and marketing leaders are turned over, for example.…