In an ideal world, the powers of marketing and sales would
naturally combine to produce solid and predicable results. This is
rarely the case.
Why? Often, marketing strategies are too far removed from the realities
of the sales process. Likewise, good salespeople can fail exactly
because their job is to focus on selling, and not on how their market
positioning is affecting opportunities.
To
help a company with sales, I employ both a Marketing and Sales
perspective. Drawing on 25 years of experience, working with different
types of businesses, I try to provide a unique view of the opportunities
and challenges.
The following topics
briefly outline a preliminary discussion about your business.
Questions about marketing
Execution - the devil is in the (many) details
Is the sales approach focused?
Need help? Let's talk
Questions about marketing
►The big questions.
It
can be a lot of work to create a marketing and sales plan. One always
questions if the targets are realistic or even appropriate for the
business. If the plan is solidly based on market opportunity and
your ability to deliver, then how do you execute to get the results?
►Let's look at assumptions.
These are the first questions I ask myself when looking at a new
business, product launch or expansion. Over the years I've worked with
hundreds of companies in different marketing and sales capacities. I
often find that there are strategies underway that rely on a number of
loose assumptions instead of hard information. These can be killers.
Assumptions can take on a life of their own, eventually passing for
accepted wisdom - neatly entrenching your barriers to success.
"I often find that there are strategies underway that rely on a
number of loose assumptions instead of hard information."
►What's happing with sales?
A
classic situation is a company that has launched a new initiative
(product, service, or expansion), and a year later wonders why the
results are so far below expectations (it's funny how a big customer is
always around the corner). In the meantime, nothing seems to
ignite sales.
What's happening here? Could it be a lack of information about the
buying process or motivation of the target customer? Are we targeting
the wrong customer or ignoring potential markets or channels
because we don't understand them? A key piece of the sales puzzle is
missing. Success is difficult without an understanding of the
information gap. Needless to say, even big companies are not exempt from
this condition.
"Are we targeting the wrong customer or ignoring potential
markets
or channels because we don't understand them?"
Execution - the devil is in the (many) details.
If marketing information is a critical factor for success, so is
execution. Sales needs to be looked at holistically. When I look to sell
a company's products or services, I look at their positioning (or
potential positioning) in the market, the type of support materials
available to customers and partners, and the sales approach.
►Is the message confused?
How many times have you been on a website or gone through a company's
literature, and you still can't understand what the company is
selling? Worse, you think the company is selling something that it
is not, or think (falsely) that you are not their target customer. Are
they highlighting benefits, or mostly features? Is it simple to
understand? Are they really addressing the point of view of the
customer? He wants to know (quickly), "what's in it for me?"
Are they really addressing the point of view of the customer?
He wants to know (quickly), "what's in it for me?"
Is the sales approach focused?
The same questions apply to the sales approach. If the marketing message
is confused, the salespeople may also be confused. Do they understand
the customer's needs and motivations? Are they leading with the
right "hot button" benefits? Do they have the right "stories" to
make the customer excited and feel "comfortable" about dealing with the
company? Other questions
concern the sales process. Is it efficient? Do you have more qualified
leads than you can handle, or are your top people digging around dead
ends? Do you have a defined process that neatly brings prospects
through the sales cycle and into "packaged" proposals and contracts? Is
your sales process maximizing the skill sets of your personnel, or are
your closers spending a lot of time on qualifications, paperwork or
travel?
"Do you have more qualified leads than you can handle, or
are your top people digging around dead ends?"
►Sales
channels, web strategies and more.
The above topics describe just some of the factors that can critically
affect sales. Other questions could include those on channel strategy,
potential for repackaging technology or services for new markets, and
web strategies to gain new customers and partners. I commonly see
businesses spending far too much time and effort developing questionable
prospects rather than using readily available vehicles to increase and
automate the flow of opportunities to maximize time spent with quality
prospects.
"I commonly see businesses spending far too much time
and effort developing questionable prospects."
Need help? Let's talk.
You might say it's good to ask questions, but how do we
turn that into sales? The questions highlight common problems. With the proper
motivation, any of these problems can be solved to the benefit of your business.
Recognizing and prioritizing the problems is the first step.
►Contacting
me for an exploratory discussion is a great second step!
I can quickly provide a no-obligation preliminary
assessment of where I think I can help your business, and what the
benefits might be.
See my Services page for more detail
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