Escaping the Black Hole

Minimizing the Damage from the Marketing-Sales Disconnect

by Robert J. Schmonsees

Thomson South-Western, 2005

ISBN: 9780324301250
Pages: 208

Category: Sales & Marketing

In this summary you will learn

• Why a gap has opened up between the sales and marketing departments
• Why Customer Relationship Management and other faddish solutions have not worked
• How to bridge the interdepartmental gap with "customer-centric" perspectives and value mapping

Why you should read Escaping the Black Hole

Sales and marketing are critical departments in any corporation, but they never seem to work together very well. Author Robert Schmonsees explains why this happens, especially in the business-to-business sector. However, his blueprint for correcting sales/marketing "disconnects" is somewhat swamped by his writing style, which is full of repetitive prose and industry jargon. Eager to describe and elaborate on various problems and solutions, he tends to overuse numbered lists and circular flow charts. In fact, he sometimes enumerates good techniques for correcting a problem and returns to the same issue in a later chapter. Pulling such concepts together would have aided his argument. Thus, the worthwhile ideas in the book are challenging to put into practice. getAbstract believes that’s unfortunate, because the author’s insights are helpful, and a more systematic approach might have made them more accessible. Patient readers will find this book useful.

About the Author

Robert J. Schmonsees is a marketing and sales executive with 35 years of experience building and running both start-ups and large, publicly traded high-tech companies.

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