My 3 easy steps to maximise your sales and marketing
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Sales and Marketing are more important to each other than ever before if you want to close more sales.
If you think back to medieval times, people would take their goods and services to the local markets and sell them face to face. Marketing for many centuries was limited to notifying passers by that their products and services were more superior than their neighbouring stall holders.
In today’s fast moving internet based world, marketing digitally is becoming essential. It is this speed that is bringing sales and marketing departments closer and closer together. In fact it is becoming essential that they do.
Organisations with tightly aligned sales and marketing functions enjoyed 36% higher customer retention rates (MarketingProfs)
They also experienced 38% higher sales win rates (MarketingProfs)
Sales and Marketing – What’s the difference?
Let’s take a look at what the English dictionary says the difference is between the two verbs.
To market – To advertise or to promote
To sell – Give or hand over (something) in exchange for money
Basically, marketing creates interest and sales converts that interest into cash. So if you want to bring cash into your business then you need to sell. However great marketing will help you do that faster and a lot more effectively. When you need to close more sales then consider what marketing can do to help.
[easy-tweet tweet=”Sales may lead to advertising as much as advertising leads to sales. – Michael Schudson” user=”SucceedatSellin”]
Maximise the sales and marketing marriage
Research your customer
Great sales people recognise that researching their prospects will make it easier for them to close successfully. Marketing professionals are excellent at doing this so it really makes sense for sales to use this expertise to their advantage.
Bring the marketing team in with the following –
- Who and where are they
- What their role is in the buying process – Decision maker, Influencer or User
- Financials – Can they afford to buy
- Politics – Are there other issues that could challenge the decision making process
- Their problems – What is hurting them and their business
Help your prospect to “Get it”
Presenting to your buyer’s learning preference will really help them to understand the value in your product or service. Remember some people may like more than one style so use modern marketing techniques to really engage with your prospect.
How many of the following do you use?
- Visual – Graphs, pictures, videos, email, slideshows
- Auditory – Podcasts, telephone, face to face
- Read/write – Hard copy literature, email, proposals
- Kinaesthetic – Face to face, video
Follow up, follow up, follow to close more sales
Create and implement a CRM strategy and where possible automate it. It takes on average seven points of contact with a prospect before they buy. Don’t let time or lack of effort prevent you from staying in contact with your prospect, before during or after the sale.
Use marketing to help you maximise each and every contact you make. Keeping that contact varied will also help you better connect with your future clients.
Confession time
As someone who started selling face to face in the mid 1980’s, I used to think that marketing was limited to leaflets, TV and newspapers. For me they only contributed to the early part of the sales process.
In some ways I was right, but with the creation of the internet marketing is now an essential tool to help every business sell what it does and make money.
Word of warning though. Don’t spend all your time marketing. It is selling that will really bring money through the door!
If you need help integrating sales and marketing more effectively into your business, then apply for your FREE Sales Accelerator call with me. You owe it to your business to get this right.
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clean and clear description of the relationship of the two processes – helpful to a me as a marketer who needs to start making sales now!
Glad to be of assistance Laura. There is a lot of info in my other blog posts on sales and marketing, but if you can’t find an answer to a sales problem then just message me. Happy to help!
Great post from someone that obviously walks the walk. And so many people as you suggest miss out on proper follow up! Thank you for sharing Susan. Great post 🙂
Thank you Steve. I’ve been walking the walk for over 30 years and follow up is a weakness in many sales processes. Automating it as much as possible is key to successful follow up!
Great post Susan, i’ve been very guilty in the past of mixing marketing and selling in the wrong proportions, but have lived and learned
Think we have all done that Mike. Part of growing a successful business!
I enjoyed this post Susan, particularly how you stated the need yo address the buyers learning style when helping them understand your offering. Of course, the follow up reminder is key as well. There are some key take always for me, do thank you!
Thanks Barb. We all learn in different ways so our approach to selling should allow for this. Pleased you like it!
Great post Sue. Particularly liked being reminded about different ways prospects might like to receive – visual, auditory, read/write and kinaesthetic, I’ll start mixing it up a bit!
Thanks Helen. If you know that a prospect or client is kinaesthetic then you may like to pop a not in the post to them. If time is not important then this would work so much better than an email. It is a good opportunity to be creative and stand out from the competition too!
Love the way you’ve sequenced the information, Susan. Contextualises marketing & selling beautifully.
Thank you for that Bibi. I am pleased that my thoughts about selling and marketing have struck a chord with you and so many others!