But Marketing Wants to Win the SuperBowl

In my last post I explained how the sales organization is focused on winning this Sunday’s game, but the marketing team is thinking longer term about how to win the Super Bowl.  The two teams, product and sales, have an irreconcilable difference in focus, priorities and strategy.  By its nature, the sales organization is goaled on short term performance.  Sales leaders focus on new bookings for the next 30, 60 or 90 days.  By contrast, the marketing organization must think longer term.  Product managers and marketing leaders must focus on the next 6, 12 or 36 months.   One concept that many companies lose sight of is that you don’t have to win every game.  Below are three examples of the long-term impacts of taking a sales-led, win-every-deal approach to your business.

The Sales Team is focused on winning this Sunday’s game

It’s September and the NFL has already completed its first week of play.  I always say the September games don’t matter.  They might as well be pre-season, because you could lose all four weekends in September, but then catch a winning streak that leads into the playoffs.  In the NFL it is not who wins an individual game that matters.  It is who wins the Super Bowl.   As I was watching the games this past Sunday, I was thinking about the similarities between product strategies and football.  I think there are similarities between the choices NFL coaches have to make and the challenges product managers confront in the corporate environment.