Don’t Waste More Money on Marketing
Some things just go together. Peanut butter and jelly. Abbott and Costello. Needle and thread. Sure they can do good things on their own; but aren’t they better together? The same better together mantra holds true for marketing and sales. Separately they’re good; together they are just what you need to help your business boom.
I think we can agree that neither sales nor marketing are effective as independent, stand-alone areas of your business. Rather, they should be part of an integrated strategy.
Why, then, are these situations so prevalent?
A company hires a marketing firm known for exceptional digital, print, and e-marketing work. The only thing that hasn’t been addressed with their team is sales—the follow-up, processes, procedures, competencies and more. Nada. It’s not part of the plan.
Larger companies may have a marketing department and possibly a sales department, too. Do they work together in a seamless manner? Sometimes, but not often enough. (“If only Sales followed up on the leads then we’d have more business,” says Marketing. “If only Marketing generated decent leads, then we’d follow-up on them,” says Sales.) Round and round it goes with no results and blame being deflected everywhere.
[Tweet “Want to see better results in #sales? It’s time to learn how to optimize your #marketing budget.”]Make no mistake about it. Unless you have an online business where interested prospects “click to buy” you must develop an integrated sales and marketing program. Marketing softens the market, creates awareness, interest and excitement; sales departments continue the process, especially in a B2B environment.
So, before you finalize your marketing budget, make certain to ask yourself a few questions and consider allocating additional resources to the sales team:
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Do you have a well-developed sales process?
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Are leads followed up in a timely manner?
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Where does your marketing database reside (CRM, spreadsheet, post-it notes, cards strewn everywhere?)
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What’s your touch point management plan?
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Are sales roles defined?
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Does everyone that “touches” a suspect or prospect have the requisite sales competencies?
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Who is managing the sales efforts?
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Do you have an adequate number of sales reps to handle the responses?
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Are your sales reps prepared to kick open doors that have been cracked open, or are they more “order-takers” than “order-makers”?
Are you satisfied with your answers? If yes, go ahead and jump right into that marketing effort because you have a strong likelihood of getting the desired ROI from your marketing expense. If not, step back and consider what parts are missing so you can take action to correct the situation.
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