Sales people with NO marketing help!

Marketing has always been a deeply important part of great sales companies. For some reason, the “wheel” continues to be reinvented time and again by people who think that facts and case studies are too old to be acknowledge as valid. Sales and all of business are a lot more successful when implemented with a well rounded plan, including a marketing mix.

All businesses have at least one person whose responsibility it is to make sure that the company has sales coming in… otherwise there is probably not going to be a business for very long. Don’t get me wrong, sales people can sell without a marketing department; however their effectiveness is hindered.

The way customers buy products and services these days, is one of the reasons I’m so passionate about great marketing. You may or may not be aware, that there are two categories of marketing, which differentiates the way that marketing and sales are conducted now – as opposed to that of yesteryear. The reason there has been a shift is simple… the internet has come of age and the modern buyer understands most of what they need before they consult suppliers of their chosen solution to negotiate with.

Inbound marketing is a marketing methodology that is designed to draw visitors and potential customers in, rather than outwardly pushing (outbound marketing) a brand, product or service onto prospects in the hope of generating leads or customers.

The difference between inbound marketing and outbound can be best compared to analytics and the way modern tools can much more quickly develop an accurate report of the current state of a business. They also more accurately forecast a businesses future prospects, than manually collecting data on spreadsheets and filtering, laying over and cross referencing the data… the way people had to do it, before the development of BI software.

If you are a business owner or in-charge as the senior manager, do yourself a favour and invest in someone who understands the basics of modern marketing and has some relevant experience generating leads with inbound marketing. They will help you hit more of your targets and also keep your sales people from continually cutting margin because they are more likely to implement a competitive analysis to make sure your company stands out from the crowd!

We are not here to develop new marketing or sales ideas, we merely compile what has worked for us and from people we respect in the global marketing world. What works now, is different from what worked 2 years ago; so we also invest a large quantity of time each month keeping ourselves abreast of what is current and best practice from around the world.

Keep fighting the good fight and feeding your potential customers with great value – not pushing your products down their throats.

If this topic is making you hot under the collar, and you would like some ideas on how to start warming up your sales pipeline with a few easy and essential marketing basics (that anyone can do), sign up below and we’ll add you to the tips and tricks email list for those DIY’ers out there.

We have also created some great material to help you understand where the world of sales and marketing are at, if you’re still reading this… email us and we’ll direct you to some answers from those we respect, including some or our own informative blogs.