The Problems Caused By Marketing for Sales
The Problems Caused By Marketing for Sales
Sadly, much of the modern marketing 'support' for sales people falls equally short, relating usually to just company product activities. This is unfortunate because not one customer has any interest in our products at all! The customer is only interested in one product, and that is his own product, which happens to be his business. Accordingly, he has a perfect right to wonder 'How can your products help my product to succeed?' Most sales people do not possess the answer to this unstated question, the reason being that they themselves are being sold the wrong ideas by their own marketing teams. Instead of learning how to create new and welcome results for customers, they are most often educated and equipped to 'talk product'.
To correct this unintentional and unproductive situation, marketing must realise that whether customers are failing or succeeding in their own businesses, they all need to improve their current performance! The language of sales people then must always be about 'business progress', and to express themselves effectively in this critical area, they need several devices from their marketing colleagues:
1. Clear evidence of how the marketing initiative will help create success for customers, and in this way the sales team are ‘sold’ (sales people need ‘market truths’ to take to market, not ‘office lies’)
2. A creative communication tool to involve customers in seeing and appreciating the 'business opportunity' being addressed (a professional and uniform consulting device)
3. A business-like presentation format that clearly outlines the company's 'recipe' for success (again, uniformity and high standards in sales communication…as opposed to ‘product material’ from the ad agency)
4. A simple, dynamic plan that indicates how the sales person will organise success through an action and performance schedule (the customers must buy and succeed, not just buy)
5. A CD to keep in the car, featuring simple ‘support messages’ from marketing/sales management (reminding sales people how to succeed with key initiatives…as they need to hear it)
6. Initial and ongoing training involvement from their sales managers, designed in simple formats by marketing and sales management, to reinforce the knowledge and skills of the sales force. This week by week, ‘dietary’ training must involve the sales team in writing out the sales objectives and selling strategies - to make absolutely sure they actually heard what marketing thought they said! The sales force must also be required to ‘rehearse’, in a professional manner, so as to reach the market with conviction and enthusiasm (never let a sales team rehearse on ‘opening night’)
If marketing provides and sells these devices to the sales force, success at market level will be far more attainable. If it does not then sales people will go to market resembling couriers, delivering messages they don't understand, to customers who refuse to take delivery. A 100 word weak sales presentation will be defeated by the customer, using just one strong word. And marketing must never leave the sales team to its own devices, especially since most of the team may not have any! Marketing writes the songs, so to speak, and sales people sing them…with the help of marketing.
Ultimately, the best marketing teams are those that understand the [unstated] needs of customers, and who accept the key role of leading the sales team to satisfy the needs of customers. Accordingly, organisations committed to continuous growth, need marketing leadership, and not just marketing management.
The Problems Caused By Marketing for Sales - To learn more about this author, visit John Lees's Website.
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Years ago at the first conference I attended as a sales rep, I recall our marketing manager giving a very boring talk on the need for us to sell slow moving products. However, his last sentence was this: 'Because it's important for the company to succeed in this exercise, for the next six weeks you will each receive 5% commission on your sales of slow moving products.' A brave salesman in the front row said 'Would you mind starting the presentation again please?' Fancy finishing a speech with the point we were most interested in! And he was one of the so-called key managers, the leader of marketing no less, and he didn't have a clue how to sell to the sales team - the people responsible for passing on marketing's enthusiasm to the customers!
Sadly, much of the modern marketing 'support' for sales people falls equally short, relating usually to just company product activities. This is unfortunate because not one customer has any interest in our products at all! The customer is only interested in one product, and that is his own product, which happens to be his business. Accordingly, he has a perfect right to wonder 'How can your products help my product to succeed?' Most sales people do not possess the answer to this unstated question, the reason being that they themselves are being sold the wrong ideas by their own marketing teams. Instead of learning how to create new and welcome results for customers, they are most often educated and equipped to 'talk product'.
To correct this unintentional and unproductive situation, marketing must realise that whether customers are failing or succeeding in their own businesses, they all need to improve their current performance! The language of sales people then must always be about 'business progress', and to express themselves effectively in this critical area, they need several devices from their marketing colleagues:
1. Clear evidence of how the marketing initiative will help create success for customers, and in this way the sales team are ‘sold’ (sales people need ‘market truths’ to take to market, not ‘office lies’)
2. A creative communication tool to involve customers in seeing and appreciating the 'business opportunity' being addressed (a professional and uniform consulting device)
3. A business-like presentation format that clearly outlines the company's 'recipe' for success (again, uniformity and high standards in sales communication…as opposed to ‘product material’ from the ad agency)
4. A simple, dynamic plan that indicates how the sales person will organise success through an action and performance schedule (the customers must buy and succeed, not just buy)
5. A CD to keep in the car, featuring simple ‘support messages’ from marketing/sales management (reminding sales people how to succeed with key initiatives…as they need to hear it)
6. Initial and ongoing training involvement from their sales managers, designed in simple formats by marketing and sales management, to reinforce the knowledge and skills of the sales force. This week by week, ‘dietary’ training must involve the sales team in writing out the sales objectives and selling strategies - to make absolutely sure they actually heard what marketing thought they said! The sales force must also be required to ‘rehearse’, in a professional manner, so as to reach the market with conviction and enthusiasm (never let a sales team rehearse on ‘opening night’)
If marketing provides and sells these devices to the sales force, success at market level will be far more attainable. If it does not then sales people will go to market resembling couriers, delivering messages they don't understand, to customers who refuse to take delivery. A 100 word weak sales presentation will be defeated by the customer, using just one strong word. And marketing must never leave the sales team to its own devices, especially since most of the team may not have any! Marketing writes the songs, so to speak, and sales people sing them…with the help of marketing.
Ultimately, the best marketing teams are those that understand the [unstated] needs of customers, and who accept the key role of leading the sales team to satisfy the needs of customers. Accordingly, organisations committed to continuous growth, need marketing leadership, and not just marketing management.
The Problems Caused By Marketing for Sales - To learn more about this author, visit John Lees's Website.
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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