Bouncing On The Marketing Mattress

October 21, 2011 at 4:11 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
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A great brand and superb marketing materials can really help a company to establish visibility and credibility with it’s audience. So too can PR and advertising help to pave the way to a successful service or product.

But they simply pave the way or in my mind, they are the mattress upon which sales must bounce.

A fantastic sales rep can close business without the benefit of marketing collateral and a brand promise.  Yes, they can, although they have to work harder and longer in order to do so.

Marketing helps the sales effort.

But make no mistake about it, marketing does not pull through closed business. It can help…it does help but people, processes and qualified sales reps acting on exquisitely crafted sales campaigns are what really generates most new business.

Most sales consultants know this is true and so when they meet a prospect they often (always?) inquire about the marketing campaign that is in the wings. They also review the web site, social media platforms and other such marketing initiatives that are “out there” for all to see.

But rarely, and I do mean rarely, do marketing professionals ask definitve questions about the prospect’s planned sales campaign that will integrate with their marketing program. It’s almost as if they are engaged in marketing for marketing’s sake.

How do I know this?  Simple. I’ve been a sales consultant for 24 years and I can count on one hand the number of times that our firm has been brought in by the marketers working on a program.  Yet in a large volume of our projects we make a concerted effort to identify the right marketing resources for the job and then send out RFPs to help us / our client make our selection.

I’m not sure why this schism exists but it does. I also know that clients would be better served if we all just played nicely together.

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Lawyers Have it Tough

May 13, 2008 at 7:00 am | Posted in Networking, sales, Sales Training, small business | Leave a comment
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Lawyers have a tough time. There are scads of them (well, here in New York anyway) and the ability to differentiate is oftentimes problematic. The large firms have marketing departments that assist with marketing/branding the firm; small firms and solos need to rely on “marketing by committee” and there’s where things often fall apart.

Business is tight these days and the need to get and stay noticed is imperative. Still, lawyers did not go to school to become proficient at marketing.

What to do?  Call Paramjit Mahli (http://www.suncommunicationsgroup.com/) and let her fabulous company help you out.  (And hey, if you’re not a lawyer and you’re reading this, make certain to tell your lawyer friends. They’ll thank you for it!)

And while I’m talking about lawyers….after the PR has started and the marketing dance is in full swing, a few sales thoughts for the taking:

I’m here to ask you, specifically and simply: HOW are you in business?

What are you like?  Are you pleasant?  Are you responsive?  Are you fair?  Do you demonstrate in HOW you are in business, that you care about helping people with whatever solution you provide?  Do you give your clients a reason to be glad that they do business with you?  Would YOU buy from you?

Here’s the thing: business culture today is so focused on the target/goal/objective, that the means of achieving those ends — the HOW of business — is often an afterthought.  In fact, sometimes, the HOW is not thought of at all, and so becomes utterly subjugated, sacrificed and snuffed out in relentless — arguably obsessive — pursuit of the bottom line and exclusively measurable outcomes. The HOW becomes nothing but a necessary evil between you and the WHY.  And like all necessary evils, you treat it with resistance, contempt and disdain (experienced life at the DMV lately?).

 

HAVE A GREAT DAY.

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