Sales or Marketing?

Would you describe your company as a Marketing led company or a Sales led company?

Does this really matter in the long run?

We believe it’s really important in a modern selling context.

Let us expand some thoughts.

Do you hear your sales team say things like “we’ll get Marketing to do that” or, “that’s the role of Marketing”.

The question I’m posing might resonate with you if you’re hearing anything similar to those statements.

You’ll likely have a less than effective sales process and sales professionals.

Are you missing the nuance?

I would suggest that if you treat the two departments as separate functions, you are missing an important nuance of what we see as a critical success factor in modern selling.

We argue that the role of Marketing and Sales have blended and merged so much that you could consider them “different sides of the same coin”.

We’re not talking about Sales and Marketing Alignment.  We totally subscribe to the strategic importance of that.

We’re talking about the operational effectiveness of your sales and marketing activities and how some specific activities should become integrated into your sales process.

Why is this important?

Well, fundamentally because your buyer expects a modern seller to also be a marketeer.

Yes, your customer expects it.

If you have this “I’ll get Marketing to do that” kind of a mindset, you’re missing the opportunity to develop meaningful dialogue with you Prospects and Customers.

Back in the day – 1990

When working for Shell some 30 years ago, you would find me Prospecting walking the streets of Sheffield, selling Industrial Lubricants to the Steel/Engineering sector – I was that traditional seller.

My pilot’s briefcase was full of brochures of every product we sold, my technical specification book and even samples of some products.

The graft, the hard yards.

Just think about this, yes I knew they were Engineering companies and that they most probably would use Industrial Lubricants but how could I research them before I “knocked” on the door?

Remember the internet and mobile technology wasn’t what it is today.

I just had to “ask” the question and do the calls.

Actually, in those days because the buyer also had a lack of information, they were much more open to having a “chat”.  From these chats came the opportunity to solve problems, add insight and ultimately sell.

But you through technology advancement you can see the potential we now have to improve the sales and buying processes. 

The key question, is have you done anything about it yet?

I mean really, have you?

Have you just got yourself a website but prefer the traditional approach of a bygone selling era.

If so it’s likely you’ve missed some of the key changes that have happened.

I’ll take a moment to share how your buyers behaviour has changed.

This should clearly show you how operationally your sales and marketing activities should now be seen as dependant on each other in ways they never were before.

Buyer Behaviours are always evolving