Beware of Marketing That Doesn’t Deliver

May 22, 2011 at 7:11 pm | Posted in Marketing, sales, small business | 1 Comment

These are tough times. Sure they’re saying that the worst of the recession is behind us but really, does ANYONE have a client that isn’t more concerned about cost, more conservative, slower to pull the trigger than the were pre 2008. Does anyone have their hands up? Not me.

My prospects and clients have emerged from being “frozen” and that’s terrific but still, they are extra cautious about every penny spent on marketing and sales initiatives.

As for me, I keep telling them that an integrated approach is probably best, that if they deploy best practices in marketing, branding, PR, social media AND sales techniques that it will all work out just fine.

But some of them have been burned. Their social media campaign opened doors but did not close business. Their new brand got them increased recognition but again, signed, sealed and delivered business did not ensue. And you know that new website. Looks great and is optimized just right and the inquiries are increasing. But once again, the volume of business that was expected…no counted on…did not materialize.

Why? Well, a few things for starters.

A well-defined sales strategy was never created and sales processes, well, they were non existent too. As for sales competencies, they hadn’t been refreshed or enhanced in some years with sales reps remaining in a comfort zone of mediocrity.

Now don’t get me wrong. I am a firm believer in the power of brand, marketing, PR, advertising and social media. But I also know that if these efforts are not integrated with exquisite selling operations then they will not bring in the optimum ROI and ultimately, we will fail our clients.

Advertisement