The Hindu Business Line : It's vital for sales, marketing teams to share link: Kotler

For any organisation to succeed, it is important that its sales and marketing teams share an integrated relationship, according to marketing expert Dr Philip Kotler.

Addressing a seminar on Marketing Mantras in the city recently, Dr Kotler said that often there is a disconnect between the two departments; they keep blaming each other if sales is disappointing.

But both have an important role to play. The 75-year-old professor of the Kellogg School of Management said: "While marketing helps build the brand, the sales team's objective is to maximise profitability. Both have to work together to get rid of the disconnect and win," he said. "The sales team should be brought into the marketing planning stages as they know the customers well. The marketing people should also watch the sales process."

Integrated development

Dr Kotler elaborated the responsibilities of the central figure in the marketing process - the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).

The CMO's role is to "upgrade the marketing level, contribute to brand strength and find new opportunities, ideas and business models."

Emphasising that marketing is not an isolated activity, Dr Kotler said the CMO must work closely with the sales, finance and IT teams.

Marketing is the "best source of ideas for a firm's development and evolution," he said.

Taking the example of Microsoft, Dr Kotler said that the company did not involve the marketing people in software development for long and hence there was no customer input. And when it realised the need to include marketing in product development, it brought in marketing research people to communicate with the public.

Adding value

Touching upon the `customer is the king' concept, Dr Kotler said, "It is important to deliver value to the customer. Be customer-centric; fixate on their needs and not on the products. Centre communication around the product's value proposition. List the ways in which your product is better than the alternatives (points of difference) and list the points of parity as your product cannot be deficient on things the customer wants.

Take the differentiators that reflect robustness and resonance and communicate them as the value proposition," said Dr Kotler.

The market has evolved over the years and companies must look ahead.

"Earlier, it was about meeting needs. Now, it's all about creating needs and driving the market with new things. One has got to guess what the desired product features will be three years from now."