Here are five differences between B2B marketing and sales managers and supply chain managers as a sort of continuation of my earlier post:
- Marketing managers being outward facing are constantly looking for opportunities sometimes without regard to what their organization can really do. Supply Chain managers first look inside before looking outside at suppliers – to ensure a good fit.
- Marketing and Sales managers are more social compared to Supply Chain Managers who are more conservative. The former do the chasing of prospects while the latter need to stave off marketing people who are the firm’s upstream suppliers.
- Marketing and Sales people are measured by sales (volume and price) while Supply Managers are assessed first on availability of goods and services required by the firm, then on cost.
- Marketing managers work on an open canvas of the market and prospective customers and use techniques like segmentation,targeting,market research and the 4 P’s. Supply Chain managers also have an open canvas of suppliers but they need to make supplies work in their firms value add process- any snags and they are in the direct line of fire! Supply managers are therefore much more risk averse and deliberative.
- On a more fun and more social note you’ll find many more marketing groups on the web and off it than supply chain managers. And when it comes to professional meetings marketing people may have extremes of no food to open bar at a high price ticket. Supply chain meetings will stay steady with modest burgers, pizza, strict cash bars, and a predictable member fee.
Organizations need to understand and mobilize the strengths and traits of these quarter backs of the firm as they grapple with global supply chains at the back end and global markets on the front end. About StratoServe.