The fact that 87% of words Marketing & Sales use to describe each other are negative, is a strong indication that many leaders still have great potential to bridge the gap between the two commercial silos.

Law of combat #1 is to “cover and move”, according to Jocko Willink, ex Navy SEAL and author of Extreme Ownership, with co-auther Leif Babin calling it the “The most fundamental tactic”.

Put simply, “cover and move” means teamwork, to collaborate more effectively to accomplish the overall strategic mission.Cover and move isn’t just the fundamental principle of combat, but of business as well. In particular, the area we work within at Kvadrant; B2B Marketing & Sales.It is the founding principle of our company, as our followers could read about in our September newsletter (sign up here).

To move B2B marketing and sales from working vertically around the customer buying process, to horizontal

Companies that manage to do so, are proven to deliver much higher growth, compared to those who work in silos, with lower cost of sales (more on that here).

1. Action

Create a shared understanding and establish a Service Level Agreement between sales and marketing.

2. Action

Set up a cadence between sales and marketing, consisting of an operational meeting.

3. Action

Establish shared KPIs for your commercial organisation and to make them transparent.

Start by doing these 3 things:

It falls squarely on leadership to continuously keep perspective on the strategic mission and remind the team that they are part of the greater team and the strategic mission is paramount.

Action #1: Create a shared understanding of how you help customers buy more effortlessly, how the functions can support each other and to set clear expectations by the establishment of a Service Level Agreement between sales and marketing.’

Action #2: Set up a cadence between sales and marketing, consisting of an operational meeting (i.e.. how are we collectively performing, what is the outlook and what actions do we need) and strategy meetings (what structural changes do we need in our current approach for optimal growth).

Action #3: Establish shared KPIs for your commercial organisation and to make them transparent so everyone understand that you are all working towards one shared commercial goal; Creation of sustained profitable growth.

(read more in my April article on the topic)

The fact that 87% of words Marketing & Sales use to describe each other are negative, is a strong indication that many leaders still have great potential to bridge the gap between the two commercial silos.

To quote Leif Babin, in his chapter on Cover & Move, from Extreme ownership chapter 5;

“Cover and Move is the most fundamental tactic, perhaps the only tactic.

All elements within the greater team are crucial, and must work together to accomplish the mission, mutually supporting each other for that singular purpose.

Departments and groups within a team, must break down silos, depend on each other and understand who depends on them.

If they forsake this principle and operate independently or work against each other, the results can be catastrophic to the overall team’s performance.

Within any team, there are divisions that arise. Often when smaller teams within the team gets so focused on their immediate tasks, they forget about what others are doing or how they can depend on other teams.

They may start to compete with one another, and when there are obstacles, animosities and blame develops. This creates friction that inhibits the overall team’s performance.

It falls on leaders to continuously keep perspective on the strategic mission and remind the team that they are part of the greater team and the strategic mission is paramount.

Each member of the team is critical to success, though the main effort and supporting efforts must be clearly identified.

If the overall team fails, everyone fails

Even if a specific member of an element within the team did their job successfully

Pointing fingers and placing blame on others contribute to further dissension between teams and individuals.

These individuals and teams must instead find a way to work together, communicate with each other and mutually support one another.

The focus must always be on how to best to accomplish the mission

Alternatively, when the team succeeds, everyone within and, supporting that team, succeeds.

Every individual and every team within the larger team get to share in the success

Accomplishing the strategic mission is the highest priority.

Team members, departments and supporting assets always cover and move each other, work together and support each other to win

This principle is integral for any team to achieve victory.