New Book Review: "Revenue and the CMO"

New book review for Revenue and the CMO: How Marketing Will Impact Revenue Through Big Data & Social Selling, by Glenn Gow, Crimson Marketing, 2013, reposted here:

This book is all about how the Chief Marketing Officer, and those with similar roles, can bridge the gap between creating more sales and building more valuable relationships with buyers, with the goal to ultimately increase revenue. The bulk (about 75%) of this white paper sized text is dedicated to following the story of individuals across the marketing and sales departments of a case study firm who eventually collaborate with this goal in mind, with the remaining portion dedicated to walking the reader through the marketer's role in creating revenue, the role of social selling in the buyer's journey, and the six steps that the author argues need to be set up in order to succeed with a social selling pilot program.

The style of the story reminds me of the story in "Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down" (see my review), and I expect it to be especially effective for those readers who are not accustomed to collaborating marketing and sales departments, because the ideas that the author presents later in the book are gently embodied in characters that will be more easily relatable by readers. While other reviewers here are correct that the idea of such collaboration is not new, the issue that it is also not widespread, and the going philosphy of the traditional sales manager here likely embodies many a sales department, especially that of small- and mid-sized firms.

A quote from the director of sales at one of the fifteen largest public accounting firms in the United States, provided in "The Integration Imperative: Erasing Marketing and Business Development Silos – Once and for All – in Professional Service Firms" (see my review) perhaps best sums up the dependency between marketing and selling: "Our people understood that we cannot effectively sell unless we market, and that we cannot market unless we sell, and finally that without superior service, both are wasted. Marketing is too expensive without selling. Selling is too hard without marketing…When we market effectively and sell correctly, we establish the basis for serving passionately."

The humorous, albeit realistic sales manager (for many firms) in the story that Gow presents, however, is focused on the marketing department generating leads for him and his team. The problem with the philosophy that leads to this expectation is that there is a disconnect between the two departments. In addition, because buyers are increasingly obtaining information for their purchase decisions apart from sales staff, and are doing so frequently before sales calls, there is an increased need for the sales staff to not only be aware of this trend, but to work with marketing more closely. Just this past week, "The Wall Street Journal", for example, explained how this trend applies to traditional car dealerships.

The author argues that social selling will positively impact revenue because of the gentle manner in which it provides information to buyers, both about products and the firm, over time, and because social selling naturally aligns with the buyer trend to obtain information on their own before approaching representatives of any specific firm. As presented by the author, using a pilot program to introduce social selling tends to help sidestep many objections, and permits the ability to start with minimal risk while also letting stakeholders see results before making a final decision in terms of whether to further proceed.

While Gow introduces the problem space very well through effective storytelling, and this book is recommended for those new to joint marketing and sales efforts, those new to using social selling, and those just starting to get familiar with the types of basic metrics that are likely to measure effectiveness, the mentioning of "Big Data" in the subtitle to this text is a bit misleading. While Big Data analytics is mentioned a few times, Big Data analytics is not required for marketing to impact revenue, and may be a distraction for many small- and mid-sized firms where starting with smaller steps might be better advised, bringing the reader back to the author's more tactical pilot program recommendation.

Nonetheless, the parting remarks that the author shares should provide enough of a catalyst to draw the attention of the target market of this book: the CMO, and those with similar roles. "You have the power to enable your sales reps to become trusted advisors to your buyers. You have the knowledge and the data to arm your sales force with a deep understanding of your buyers: what they know, what they care about, and what they need. That's what it takes to position the sales rep in the role of valued advisor to the buyer. Only you can make that happen. Sales can't do it without you." Some readers might be interested in knowing that this book is being made available free of charge for a limited time on the publisher's website.