Managing
sales and marketing together By Stephen Rhodes
SWhy is it that Sales and Marketing
seem to be at odds with one another so often?
“You can pay me now or you can pay me later”
is the great divide between Sales and Marketing.
What CEO doesn’t want both?
Marketing is about building long-term customer relationships
and Sales is about instant gratification so the key
is to find a balance between short-term expectations
and long-term strategy.
In many companies, what happens is that pressure to
drive business in this quarter outweighs what might
be coming a year or so away … a bird in the
hand …so to speak. Compounding these seemingly
contradictory views is that many companies manage
Sales and Marketing together under one roof when they
have entirely different goals.
Marketing can not be solely a support group for Sales,
with its insatiable need to feed this month’s
quota; otherwise the business will die because no
one is building the long-term relationships to survive
changing markets, competitive activity and new product
launches. And no one is positioning the company for
the future because everyone is staring at the nose
on their face.
There has been great gnashing of teeth over how to
engage Marketing and Sales as a convergent strategy
in business. And there are widely differing opinions
of the role of each.
Clearly they have different needs. And that can lead
to conflict.
Marketing uses a full arsenal of tools - advertising,
collateral, public relations, websites, word of mouth
– to create “warm” prospects for
the sales department. Positioning – or branding
the company and hammering home the message to the
right target on a consistent basis is like softening
the ground before the troops move in.
Marketing needs data to measure success, what’s
working, what isn’t and how many leads convert
to sales? Sales on the other hand wants to take advantage
of “warm” prospect but frankly doesn’t
much care about marketing’s need for data, because
the mortgage is due this month.
The leadership and communication has to come from
the top. Business leaders need to understand the value
of Marketing and Sales and their respective roles.
Moreover, they need to strongly communicate this to
their leadership team.
In its simplest form, Marketing is what it takes to
make the phone ring and Sales is making the cash register
ring. But each group needs to fully understand the
role and value of the other to achieve success.
It’s a misconception that, if you want to increase
sales, you need more customers. Certainly selling
to more people will make sales go up, but there are
other ways to increase sales.
Sales also increase when customers spend more each
time they buy from you and when they do it more often.
Both Marketing and Sales have a role in growing business
among existing customers. Responsive long-term relationships
depend on understanding the customer’s needs
and working to meet those needs. In turn, that level
of service leads to increased sales. As customer relationships
become stronger, you add to your sales depth because
they effectively become a referral service.
Research shows that it costs six times more to attract
a new customer than it costs to re-sell to someone
who has bought from you before. So, look for ways
to bring customers back more often, and over a longer
period of time. While this month’s sales quota
is important, the longer view will lead to the growth
of your business.
The
swing to consultative sales By Jeff Bowman
Step right up ladies and gentleman,
you won’t believe your eyes, let me direct your
attention, you’ll be amazed!
We all know that selling
is the oldest profession in the world. We’ve
seen the old fashioned sales tents and the stands
with the barkers, and we’ve heard the pitches:
“Don’t be misled by other’s claims”
“Can you afford to be without one”?
“A good wife will …”
“Act now; this is a limited time offer”
There have been monumental changes
in the way goods are bought and sold in the last 100
years. Our grandparents bought from a catalogue or
the local general store and occasionally the trains
would bring salesmen from afar with new products that
supposedly worked miracles.
Today we have television, radio
and the internet; hundreds of choices of stores or
suppliers from which to purchase, and of course the
catalogue and the barker (professional salesman) are
still around.
Despite the increased competition,
the ease with which we can purchase products, the
complexity and length of some buying decisions and
the ever-changing needs of the corporate buyer, the
traditional style of selling goods and services has
changed little in the last century.
The traditional sales approach
preaches getting the buyer’s attention (you
won’t believe your eyes!), stimulating their
interest (let me direct your attention!), creating
a demand for the product (you’ll be amazed!)
and a call to immediate action (act now). Sound familiar?
Buyers in today’s world
are much smarter and better informed. Professional
buyers are certified in their trade. They don’t
want cheap gimmicks, or one time offers and today
demand that the salespeople calling on them are service
experts, who make it their job to satisfy needs, provide
advice, build a solid relationship and go the extra
mile for them. In short, they want a Consultative
Sales Professional.
Today’s salespeople need
to be experts in all areas of their product offering;
they need to build a strong relationship with the
buyer; they should be able to accurately profile their
own company, the competition and their customer and
be able to probe to uncover opportunities and needs
so they can offer a clear benefit for every feature
of their product or service.
It doesn’t stop at the
salesperson, even though they are the focal contact
with customers. Companies need to build a culture
focused on providing the highest value to the customer.
Marketing, customer service, finance, even warehouse
employees and shippers need to be trained in the new
consultative sales techniques.
In today’s market, the
true winners will be organizations who value a customer
focused approach.
“Good afternoon, will you allow me a few minutes
of your time to learn more about your business so
that I can better service your needs?”
