Tweet

Bad Sales and Marketing

Guest post by: Hussain Zaidi

Article Overview: Bad sales and marketing means talking about yourself, your product or your service instead of your customer! If your sales and marketing does not speak to your customer about them, you may be missing the boat.

Bad Sales and Marketing

Bad sales and marketing means talking about yourself, your product or your service instead of your customer!

Have you ever watched a TV commercial that went on and on about how good the advertiser was? You probably saw one last night! Car commercials are some of the worst offenders in this category, and the lengths to which car manufacturers try to appear so “cool” and technologically advanced while talking exclusively about their cars sometimes amazes me. Sure, you will sometimes see what I called a “you”-centric ad which focuses on the customer like sales and marketing should. However, more often than not you will see all kinds of slick special effects to highlight how sleek the car is and lots and lots of narrative about how “we have done this...” or added that or innovated something else to come up with the coolest car in the world. Unfortunately, that kind of advertising will only appeal to people who were interested in that specific car to begin with, for the most part. The rest of us get bored and roll our eyes. Why is it that so many marketers and advertisers still fail to take their eyes off of themselves and tailor their message to and about their customers instead?

The best description I have come across for what good marketing should be was during my research for some articles I wrote on advertising. I came across a phrase by an early pioneer in the field, John E. Kennedy, who describes advertising as ”salesmanship in print” (this was the start of the 1900s and they did not have radio or TV!). It struck me that this is exactly what I preach to my own customers - and whoever will listen! - with regards to creating good advertising copy: that it should speak to your customers just like your best salespeople do. It should be personable, knowledgeable and consultative. Being personable means that you should not make your sales, marketing and advertising like a sterile, formal announcement but should inject some warmth into your message. Being knowledgeable refers to the fact that you are aware of your customer's situation and problems and that you focus on these exclusively. Being consultative means that you understand that the process is a back-and-forth where you do more listening and understanding than communicating!

What I call Sales and Marketing for “You” begins and ends with your customer - “you”. The word “you” is to remind you to use that word in your customer communications, be they written, verbal, electronic or otherwise. Rather than say, “Big Sale!”, why not say, “Save up to 50%!” The second is “you”-centric because it speaks to your customer while the former is simply an announcement that assumes that someone will care enough to follow its instructions. In actual fact, announcements are a thing of the past, where a company could simply put out a message like some kind of authority and people would flock to buy their product or service. You have heard and you know that consumers today are more cynical and do not trust sales and marketing messages any more. Customers today have to be cajoled and humored and spoken to intelligently. They have to be won over like a friend you have had a fight with but want to make up with. You have to tread lightly in reaching out to customers and forming relationships with them. Understand that the customer-seller relationship is fragile and must be handled with care!

A great test of whether or not your sales and marketing lives up to the philosophy of “You” Messaging is to simply read it to your customer. If you have created an ad or a marketing piece, can one of your salespeople use it verbatim in talking to a customer? Thinking about how you speak to your customers in person will make sure that you have the right tone and focus in your message. For example, would your salesperson see and customer and simply talk about how great your latest features are for 15 minutes? Probably not. They would begin by asking customers questions and then inserting comments about features and such as appropriate to answer to customer needs. This is the second part of creating an effective message and approach: make sure that you are focused on your customer and what they want. To that end, be prepared to ask about and discuss their problems as much as possible. Remember that your product or service is only of value to your customer to the extent that it answers to a concern of their and makes their lives better in some shape or form. Instead of saying, “we've just make our machines more powerful!” ask, “do you sometimes suffer from a lack of power on big jobs?” Turn it around to make it about what the customer is doing and what the sales and marketing process unfold by itself!

If your sales and marketing does not speak to your customer about them, you may be missing the boat!

Related Articles
  3 Good Reasons Marketing Should Qualify Leads Before Passing to Sales
  Sales VP's and Marketing VP's - Should the Roles be Combined?
  Judicial Branch Needed to Keep Sales Lead Management Honest
  Those idiots in sales just don’t get it
  Who Cares More-Sales or Marketing?
  Market First, Sell Second to Increase Sales in 2011
  Mistakes of a Marketing Budget Strategy
  How to Guarantee Internet Marketing Sales! ~GET RESULTS FAST
  Filling the Gap Between Generation and Conversion
  SALES & MARKETING - ARE THEY COMPATIBLE FOR MARKET SUCCESS?
  Sales and Marketing: Know and Apply The Separate But Equal Ideology
  How To Set Up Your Budget for Marketing
  Sales and Marketing - Yin and Yang, or Oil and Water?
  Marketing Success vs. Sales Success
  It's time for Marketing to work from a system!
  Sales without Marketing is a huge blunder
  First Sell What the Customer Wants; Not What You Want to Win More Sales
  Questions Every CEO Should Be Asking His Sales Managers
  Education Based Marketing the New Sales Paradigm for Relationship Selling
  Does Your Sales Training Program Pass or Fail the Rope Test?

Article Tags: business, customers, sales and marketing



Related Forum Posts
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - [quote="ltrahan":31w9r2iz]Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing[/quote:31w9r2iz] I second the request...
niche forum categories - I think Kevin just touched on the point that I was going make... and that is developing 'categories' that stick. Sales and Marketing may be too broad for example. However I can almost guarantee you that you would see many more sign-ups if you tailored a category to 'internet marketing' for newbies. I've seen this work on other forums, however, [i:1i903wkn]it can get a little frantic[/i:1i903wkn]... Fine tuning the categories, or expanding the scope should be effective. I think a lot of IM folks are surfing right on by because they're not finding what they're looking for here... Just a few thoughts: Better Blogging Developing Info Products Internet Marketing Presentation Skills More How to's Another point is... a lot of people don't know that they can benefit from participating in forums. The signature links to their site - if they have one - can / should be motivation enough to get more involved. The more internet savvy members that have signatures seem to stick around more... Don't you think?
Different Hats - CEO Sales & Marketing & Leadership Development Company Strategic Vision 10 Alliances & Growth Strategies 10 Hiring & Managing People 8 Mentoring 8-9 Strategic Planning for Clients 10 Execution of Marketing Campaigns 9-10 (i have great people who do the nitty gritty) Financial Management 9 Bookkeeping 3 (outsourced as I really hate the fine details like GST0 Administrative Follow Up 6-7 (again have great staff) Writing & Publishing 9 (getting better all the time!) Speaking 10 (so I have been told) Self Promotion 9-10 Web development & Promotion 6-7 (learning more and have brought on players who are 10+) Babysitting Employees (1 - wont do it, that's why I work so hard to hire and motivate the people I have) Great topic Kevin!! Jude
Any ideas for potential partner sites? - Hi Everyone, I was wondering if any of you have any ideas on "potential partner sites" for our specific forum categories? For instance, is there a leading "Women Entrepreneur" or "Sales/Marketing" site you know of that doesn't have an existing online community of its own? This could be a great way to help us attract more traffic. Thanks


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

3 Key Factors For Raising Capital

Good News Travels Fast

Unspoken Yet Important Rules for Book Proposals

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.