Revenue Disruption: Game-Changing Sales and Marketing Strategies to Accelerate Growth

Creating “Team Revenue” within the Corporation

The top sales executive at a prominent technology company, who was himself an early adopter of RPM, recently described the marketing and sales relationship at many of the companies he had encountered. “It’s a lot like a dysfunctional marriage,” he said. “The husband and wife have forgotten why they got married in the first place, what made them such a great couple, a team. Those of us in marketing and sales must remember that we too are also members of the same team. And just like the couples in successful, long-lasting marriages, we need to approach business challenges and opportunities together, leveraging our collaborative strengths.”

The sales executive continued: “It doesn’t really matter if the fault lies with marketing or sales, or even both. There are two sides to every coin, and at least two versions of every problem. Pointing fingers and saying things like, ‘marketing couldn’t deliver quality leads,’ or ‘sales couldn’t close them,’ does no one any good. The only thing that matters is achieving revenue growth, and that requires us to come together as an integrated operation to solve problems and work the revenue cycle in a coordinated way. That’s what it takes to create a high output, revenue-centric organization. Ultimately, that’s what RPM is all about.”

The best marketing leaders see the world in much the same way. Susanne Lyons, the former CMO of Visa USA and Charles Schwab & Co., has been on the front lines of helping ...