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Project Managed Sales and Marketing

Guest post by: Hussain Zaidi

Article Overview: Sales and marketing success is a planned event and does not come about through random activities. Project Managed Sales and Marketing means not doing anything unless it is part of your predetermined process.

Project Managed Sales and Marketing

Sales and marketing success is a planned event and does not come about through random activities!

People often take a more laid back approach to sales and marketing than they do with other business disciplines. This is not to say that sales and marketing professionals do not work as hard as people in finance, HR or operations – they do! - but that they sometimes consider their field more of an art than a science. The truth is that it is both and unless you become as calculating in your efforts in this crucial area as in others, you will be leaving money on the table and you will not be as effective as you can be. Maximizing your sales and marketing success is based on following these fundamental principles of Project Management:

(1) Plan

Have you heard the saying, “Plan you work and work your plan”? This should apply as much to your sales and marketing strategy as anything else in life. We sometimes think that because we cannot control the crucial variable of customer interest then our efforts cannot be as precise as in other areas of our business. This is simply not the case and in order to succeed you must develop the mindset that your are following a process that will lead to success. Your goal is to figure out the concrete and repeatable steps in that process that apply to your business, from every communication to customer interaction to next step to deal

(2) Measure

You can't measure everything but you should measure something. While there are no end to metrics and statistics that you can apply to your sales and marketing efforts, you do not need to get bogged down in numbers and forget about the heart of business which is people. At the same time, you can't just focus on developing relationships without measuring your activities in some shape or form so that you can progress. In sales, common metrics are things like how many calls become leads that become sales. In marketing, you should be most concerned with maximizing sales leads per time and money spent on each campaign

(3) Monitor

You might see this as a subset or a complement to measuring, but what I want to emphasize in this step is to do business with your eyes open. In sales and marketing, more than in other business functions, the fact that we are dealing primarily with people introduces a lot of uncertainty into the mix. A big part of your job, therefore, is to try and decipher this uncertainty by seeking to interact with customers and gather feedback about what is working and what is not. Was your new improvement or message well received? Are there other areas where you may have opportunities you are overlooking? Keep checking the pulse of your market

(4) Adjust

As you work your plan and gather information about what is working in your current process and how happy your customers are, you will come full circle and begin the cycle again. Do you need to make more or less calls or do more or less market research? Should you spend more or less money on specific sales and marketing activities? In your cyclical tuning think about what you can do better and how you can generate more revenue with your time and resources. You mentality should be one of seeking continuous improvement, otherwise you run the risk of losing business. Always keep your mind open to new changes that can help your business

(5) Experiment

That leads nicely into the last point of making sure you foster ongoing innovation. While experimenting is not a bona fide part of the Project Management process, it is part of the sales and marketing process! As long as you stay focused on improvement you will find more and more ways to do things better (as opposed to believing there are none in which case you will not find any and you will stagnate!). Balance risk and reward and try something new. You will be surprised to find that sometimes the smallest changes can bring big results and there are few things as gratifying as when your work pays off in more business

Project Managed Sales and Marketing means not doing anything unless it is part of your predetermined process!

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Article Tags: business, customers, sales and marketing



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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...
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