I tweeted earlier today about IBMs state of marketing survey that states that CMOs and CIOs must work closer together in a partnership, based on an article in Forbes magazine.

But there has been a lot of debate on which one is best suited to engage with the customer. PR people claiming that marketing is fundamentally based on mass marketing and one to many communication without dialog with the consumer. On the other side still many measure the value of PR based on the placement, size and kind of newspaper the press release is accepted.

Both struggled to win the war about whose was to “own” social media. And at the heart of this debate was who was better at having an “interactive” relationship with the customer.

The thing is that both have models and tools for mass communication AND 1-1 dialog. But the truth is that neither actually meets the customer eye to eye. Surveys, phone, SMS or social media mainly does the interaction.

“But the truth is that neither actually
meets the customer eye to eye.”

But in most companies there is someone who has this connection with the customer, both existing and potential, and that is the chief sales officer (CSO).

So when IBM is stating that CMOs and CIOs should work together they are of course right (specially because they are emphasising the use of mobile technology and social media), but still just covering half the picture.

And I agree with Forbes when asking if a stronger marketing IT relationship really can impact business. The real impact will come if they manages to use the IT relationship not only to work on technology directed towards the customers but use it to stenghten the relationship bewteen the CMO, CIO and the CSO.

The three Musketeers in a strong customer relationship

In a changing world, not only when it comes to use of “new” media, but when the focus of research and firms is on customers value the role of the salespeople will increase in importance and a strong realtionship (and IT solutions to support this) between the three mentioned discovering a customers true value needs could possible be found.

And that will have an impact on business.