Companies often hire a sales hero or marketing firm expecting that once they’re engaged, sales leads will naturally follow — that the only action needed is to put them to work. However, that approach neglects a key element: building a strategy that links both marketing and sales. And because of this, companies tend to quickly move on from one and hire others, believing that it’s a matter of capabilities. This Whack-A-Mole approach becomes a loop and little value is gained.
“A lot of people don’t understand what marketing is and the importance of its relationship to sales,” says Chris Peer, President of Manufacturing Growth Lab / SyncShow. “Marketing firms and salespeople will work really hard to produce results, but without a clear sense of who is being targeted and how best to reach them, they’ll fall short of what is often unrealistic expectations.”
Smart Business spoke with Peer about the importance of developing a holistic strategy to get the most out of a marketing engagement.
What problems stem from a poor marketing strategy?
Companies waste a lot of time and money when they market without a strategy. They’re using resources over the course of a year or more, and when they don’t see the results they imagined they’d get, they blame the agency and start again from scratch. What’s often missing is the right system — a whole revenue engine — that includes a well-articulated and differentiated value proposition, and aligns sales and marketing strategies. They also need to effectively designate roles for their CRM, sales pipelines, marketing automation and corporate website so they can all play into the revenue operation.
Sales is often done the same way. A company hires a hero salesperson to fix their flagging sales. Then, when that salesperson doesn’t do the impossible and correct every issue the department faces, they’re dismissed as not being any good. The salesperson may have been great, but there was no system of support behind them.
Solid, reproducible results require an integrated sales and marketing strategy, complete with role assignments, targets, goals and key performance indicators to hold teams accountable.
What’s a better way to address this issue?
It’s best to set up an integrated, sustainable sales and market system. To do that, companies should look for a guide, such as a marketing or sales consultant. Start with a strategy that targets specific customer demographics with the right message and delivers it in a way that it reaches the target audience. Too often sales and marketing don’t identify the ideal customer profile or the buyer personas that make buying decisions. Without that, the campaign is haphazard. It may produce results, but rarely will it reach the desired audience.
When it comes to a guide, look for a firm or consultant with proven experience in developing strategies and implementing systems that have yielded results. It’s also important to work with someone who’s willing to be honest and candid about what they see as the barriers to an effective sales or marketing approach. Oftentimes, an agency or salesperson will tell you what you want to hear during the interviewing process, not what you actually need.
What should this look like once it’s set up?
System installation and strategy development can be done within 90 days — that gets a company to platform readiness. Running the system is an iterative process that happens over the next three to six months. Then it’s a matter of continuous optimization while ensuring that the team is using the system the way it’s designed to be used. To that point, leadership needs to hold people accountable, which can be done through data analytics, reports and dashboards, so that time and investment aren’t wasted. If people are held accountable, then the company has a revenue system that’s scalable, repeatable and predictable.
The fastest-growing companies are doing these things well. They have the strategy, systems and software in place, and they execute on that strategy over and over again. Before companies waste thousands of dollars on a Whack-A-Mole approach, they should connect with an expert to build a strategy that aligns their organization. ●
INSIGHTS Marketing is brought to you by Manufacturing Growth Lab / SyncShow.
