Breaking Down Sales and Marketing

Revisiting the Sales and Marketing ConversationBack in October 2015 we shared an article called “5 Ways Marketing Departments Help Salespeople Catch Butterflies.” Recently a tenfold article was shared with us, titled “What is the Meaning of Sales & Marketing and Their Advantages?” and, I have to say, it does a pretty awesome job of breaking down the differences, responsibilities, and links between sales and marketing roles. Why revisit this now? Because it has never been more apparent that the relationship between sales and marketing is still just as misunderstood as ever, especially with advances in marketing technology.Setting the Record StraightMany in the business world, especially those who rely on sales and marketing for success, don’t actually have a concrete grasp on exactly what sales and marketing are. Yes, the two are linked, but they are not one and the same. Sales departments rely on marketing; marketing departments and strategies exist to feed sales (notice I didn’t say “make” sales). You wouldn’t engage in marketing if you had nothing to sell, and your sales strategy would be much less informed and successful if not for your marketing efforts. Yes, many old-school salespeople (or go-getter small business entrepreneurs) are quite capable of drumming up business on their own, and may even have some tried-and-true marketing tactics up their sleeve – but few have the time, skill, or technological resources to effectively capitalize on the true potential of their market.A common mistake made by older, more established businesses is to assume that salespeople are skilled at marketing and that marketing people are skilled at making sales. In some cases this may be true, but certainly not across the board. While trying to conserve capital, many of these companies will attempt to combine their sales and marketing departments, essentially tasking their employees with two job descriptions, and that’s usually a bad move. It’s no accident that more recently established companies, tech giants, and organizations that employ a large number of millennials are killing it with their marketing efforts.Breaking It DownAs the tenfold article explains, some of the key responsibilities of a sales team include:

Follow Up

Relationship Building

Closing

Retention

The mark of a great salesperson is the ability to cultivate a personal relationship. Many consumers who have stayed loyal to the same brand, dealership, or salon for years will say that they appreciate the personal attention they receive there. It is not a marketing employee’s responsibility to follow up with a salesperson’s existing customer once the lead has been handed off, nor is it their responsibility to convert a lead to a sale, “close the deal,” or make sure the client remains a client for many years. Short of having an outstanding relationship with a skilled salesperson, product quality and excellent overall experience are the main things that will bolster client retention.On the marketing side, primary efforts are:

Awareness

Engagement

Conversion (from anonymous to known)

Retention

It is not a salesperson’s job to generate awareness or buzz about their brand, product or service. If they are expected to use their energy to make sales by nurturing leads and relationships, then how can they also be expected to have the time to do the leg-work up front that brings those leads to the table in the first place?The marketing department creates awareness, builds engagement by creating information that will invite audience members to take action, and targets and tracks engagement by motivating audience members to provide contact information or initiate a free trial or consultation (converting them from a cold prospect to a known lead or potential buyer). It is important to note here that the retention function of a marketing department doesn’t really overlap the retention efforts of a sales team.On the sales side, client retention refers more to the salesperson’s efforts to use the client relationship to continually check in with the client, attempt to engage them in further discussions about additional products or services they may be interested in, and seek referrals to the client’s friends and family members. On the marketing side, however, retention refers to maintaining a higher level of consistent engagement (through targeted marketing based on buying preferences, interests and history) so that the customer relationship doesn’t end at the initial purchase. Those email newsletters you receive after becoming a customer somewhere are not random – they have a purpose and are often tailored to things you’ve viewed or expressed interest in. A sales team simply doesn’t have the insights, time, or often the resources to execute these types of strategic campaigns.The Fine-Tuned Coexistence Of It AllThe ideal sales and marketing relationship is a symbiotic one. Marketers and salespeople work together to determine what consumers need and how to deliver it. Sales and marketing should motivate, inspire and feed one other. They should collaborate and coexist. In the hierarchy of the business food chain, sales and marketing should not be seen as rivals or equals, but counterparts. One truly cannot exist without the other, but their skill sets are not the same – especially today, where advances in technology require the modern marketer to have a very specific, honed, and competitive set of skills that most sales people simply do not need to have.For this reason many marketers are introverted, analytical, and deep-thinking individuals. Whether they’re crunching numbers and analyzing data, compiling reports on trends and conversion rates, or writing awesome ads and creating beautiful websites and collateral material, they are required to intensely focus on what works, what doesn’t, and adjust their creative efforts accordingly. Usually a marketing department will have creatives, analysts, and more tech-oriented people (who dive into the numbers and algorithms behind advanced marketing tools).In contrast though, many salespeople are extroverts – they light up a room, they have excellent “people skills,” can easily relate to others, and have the ability to pick up on social cues that might actually help them close a sale. Oftentimes salespeople have a broader focus, preferring to spend their days with appointments and meetings – activities that build relationships – rather than sitting behind a desk doing what a marketing department does best. For this reason, many salespeople have administrative assistants to help them with follow-up, paperwork, appointment setting, phone calls, proposals, and calendar management. This type of functional assistant role is less widespread in the marketing realm.Share Your ThoughtsBe sure to read the full article (and let us know how it compares to our post ) for additional insights on the relationship between sales and marketing teams. Join the conversation: in your experience, what have been some key components of a successful sales and marketing partnership?

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Inbound Marketing Tips – 10 Methods to Assimilate

Inbound marketing tips definitely have some advantages for sales teams in improving the volume and quality of their sales. Below are 10 tips as methods of use to support your sales teams.

1. Create a landing page which each of your Sales Persons can call their own – This allows each of them to build a page that is unique and makes them feel like they are part of the marketing process. When sending out emails they can have a URL pointing back to their landing page.

2. Ears and Eyes for Sales – When the marketing department participate in social media leads can be passed onto the sales people earlier on in the process.

3. Lowered Salesforce Costs – Prospecting is very expensive for sales people moving a prospective buyer from awareness to a point of decision. The highest and best use is moving a qualified lead from from point decision to a point of action, as soon as possible. It is less expensive to leverage inbound marketing tips that will pull a prospect into the sales funnel rather than use a sales person to mange the whole process.

4. Interface to Work Directly With Marketing – many traditional forms of marketing do not engage sales people in lead generation execution and development. Inbound marketing tips allow them to participate directly and build a stronger brand. Examples are blogging, responding to questions posted in social media platforms and tracking leads.

5. Direct Selling To Be Supported By Assets – Blog posts, whitepapers, ebooks presentations and other assets can be used to help sales people add value and convert leads during the direct sales process. Assets developed to be effective in converting leads from a website are better than using methods from traditional means i.e brochures etc. This is because they are designed to add value and bring people in.

6. A breath of fresh air from Push vs Pull Selling – most organisations, small and medium businesses that rely on direct selling have failed to notice that buyers behaviors have changed. This shift requires companies to think about how to add value and empower customers to choose them. Inbound marketing tips puts the customer at the heart of all the decision making and puts the company in a position to retain their existing customers.

7. The Lead Generation gap can be filled – This can be for outside sales people. They struggle to reach their sales goals because they are unable to convert enough prospects to leads and leads to prospects and leads to customers. Inbound marketing tips can help sales people reach their goals by spending more time with qualified leads.

8. Closed knit Customer acquisition from Click to Close drives out Sales Expenses – Using strategies mentioned above will streamline the cost of customer acquisition, because sales and marketing are able to work collaboratively.

9. Sales teams can resonate with KPIs – When measuring success, traditional outbound marketing measure what a marketing department does i.e brand awareness building. Inbound marketing tips are measured on visitor to lead and lead to customer.

10. Culture centered on success – The organisation from top to bottom operates under the same umbrella of adding value to the customer relationship and commitment.