One of the problems we frequently encounter is confusion between marketing and sales, and deciding where and how much to invest. The problem is made worse with a limited budget and often the decision is to invest in sales tools or people first and leave marketing or marketing strategy till later. This is often followed by dissatisfaction with the quality and conversion rate of sales. Why is this and what is going wrong?
Definitions of sales and marketing
Firstly, it helps to get clear about the function of ‘marketing’ and the function of ‘sales’.
At its most basic level marketing is about attracting people towards your organisation, and sales is about encouraging people to act (such as to buy your product or service).
Good marketing and good sales are about attracting and encouraging the right people to act.
The skills needed in these functions are different but they go hand-in-hand. There is no point investing all your resources into marketing activities if you don’t have sales follow-up. It is a costly mistake to put all your efforts into sales if you are not attracting the right people towards your business, or are attracting poor quality leads which your salesperson has difficulty in converting because they are bead leads!
Marketing strategy
Secondly, there is a tendency (and we all do it the first time we set up a business) to rush out into the marketplace telling everyone about our wonderful new product or service without really working out who we should speak with; this is a bit like putting the cart before the horse.
It is a waste of time and money to try and attract the whole world in the hope that enough people will see the value of your offering and approach you.
The clearer you are about your ideal client (profile, avatar, persona), the message your ideal client wants to hear and the places they go to find answers, the more effective your marketing and sales activities will be. This is the job of marketing strategy.
If you are not getting enough leads or getting poor-quality lead results, it’s a sign that there is something wrong with your marketing strategy.
Take control
The advantage of clarifying your marketing strategy is that it gives you confidence and puts you back in control of both your marketing and sales functions.
A marketing strategy, specific to your organisation, means that you can
- Justify to yourself ‘why?’ each marketing and sales activity is worth doing.
- Set meaningful metrics to measure investment effectiveness.
- Rank and prioritise expenditure based on knowledge of your target market.
- Confidently engage and instruct all your customer-facing teams.
- Justify your decision-making to stakeholders.
- Deliver focussed go-to-market campaigns
As one of our clients recently said:
“I can’t believe I made my life so difficult by not thinking clearly about my target market first. Previously I’d been so scattergun in my approaches. How can you have a focussed campaign if you are targeting the wrong people or everybody at once?”
The good news is that creating your marketing strategy needn’t be a time-consuming, costly process. At Priddey Marketing we have created a ‘Six Step’ planning approach to get you there more quickly and easily than doing it alone.
Working with CEOs, MDs and leaders our CEO, Su Copeland, will guide you smoothly through the process to document your marketing strategy in 2024 and deliver a bespoke marketing plan with next actions.
Interest? Book a quick call with Su.