Marketing And Sales
The Relationship Between Marketing And Sales by James Copper
When comparing marketing with sales and considering how they
relate to one another I always think of the medium sized
business where I had my first job. The marketing department
people were serious and analytical, always busy with
statistics and campaigns and meetings. The sales people were
breathless, always on the go, always on the phone or going
to meet customers, always on the cusp of some enormous deal,
some magic sale that would catapult the company's turnover
way over the annual target. As a junior it seemed to me that
the marketing people and the sales people were from two
different planets. I now know that they were simply two
parts of the same continuum.
Marketing can be described as the set of activities that are
undertaken in order to generate leads, while selling is the
act of turning a prospect a hot lead into a buyer and later
a repeat customer. The marketing and sales functions of any
organization are glued together by leads. If there are no
leads, the two will fall foul of one another. I saw this in
that business I was describing earlier. But leads work both
ways. The marketing department has to deliver them and the
sales department must act upon them to maximum advantage.
But leads must first be generated and that is why marketing
tends to overwhelm the sales function when the two are
discussed.
The various forms that marketing takes are well known
because they are so visible. They range from cold canvassing
to brand or corporate advertising, through to the more
targeted types of marketing such as direct response
advertising and referrals, where the particular benefits of
the product is explained to the customer. If this is done
properly, then qualified prospects will actually approach
the sales people for assistance. Sales people love those
leads. It is in fact when the sales people take over the
communication function that the lead ceases to be a lead and
becomes a prospective customer, then a customer and finally
a repeat customer.
Actually I have painted a somewhat idealistic picture of the
lead relationship between the marketing function and the
sales function. It is just not that simple because not all
leads are equal. An extremely tiny percentage leads are
customers who are ready to buy. Most of them are merely
interested in possibly buying at a future date and some are
just mildly interested, just browsing. That's why it is
important to have some sort of lead management system so
that potential customers can be turned into buyers and
buyers can become repeat customers.
All follow up communication should be friendly and
informative, definitely not hard sell. The company
representative should be regarded as a helpful expert rather
than a rabid sales person. Fortunately many of the follow up
functions can be automated to take the form of email, direct
mail, voice broadcast and fax broadcast. Obviously the lead
would be encouraged each time to call directly if they have
questions or a ready to buy. The follow up effort is usually
a function of the marketing and sales departments combined.
About the Author
James Copper is a writer for http://www.marketinglinx.com
where you can find out informtation on marketing and sales
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