The sheer volume of impractical business solutions you can find are nearly endless. Too often, I overhear some stupidly shallow conversation or ridiculously useless blog opinion that tries to separate two key functions of business: marketing and sales.
They are inherently intertwined. Yes, sometimes, there will be a rainmaker with the Midas touch but even that golden goose uses marketing in face-to-face deals and sales calls.
But in order to help businesses succeed, I wrote down some rules that work. (I am not a fan of “rules” because people can depend upon them rather than use them which is why I once wrote, rules enables you to follow. Knowledge enables you to lead.)
With that, here are some rules you can use to lead.
5 Ways to Help “Marketing” & “Sales” Successfully Get Along
When I am talking about “sales” and “marketing” here, I am not speaking about the departments which seem to have en endless rivalry (as though they each had different goals… hello!). No. I am speaking of the functions and tools in any company or organization (see these examples on Daymond John and how he uses these successfully).
With that point cleared up, here are 5 ironclad rules anyone can use, no matter where they are in the evolution of their business:
- It’s hard to get sales when nobody knows of you.
- It’s hard to maintain morale when nobody wants what you have and no sales are occurring.
- It’s impossible to get anyone to care about your offering if your message doesn’t differentiate in a compelling way.
- A compelling marketing message gives those responsible for sales something to say that others care about.
- Having something to say (as a marketing message) is vital. Having something that will be heard? Priceless.
Or, as said in the words of ad legend David Ogilvy:
“You can’t save souls in an empty church…. And you can’t bore people into buying your product.”
5 Ways to Turn These Rules Into Sales
Do one of these per day for each of the next five days and please let me know your results.:
- To achieve 1 above, create a name and design a brand that people will stop and notice. Then, promote it wildly.
- To handle 2 above, never stop selling. But do it with grace, style and quality so you don’t add to the noise. (Ever notice the difference between Best Buy and an Apple store? Best Buy employees are there to sell you something with little more value than that. Apple store employees on the other hand are there to lend a hand, to help get what you’re interested in, not only what they’ve got in inventory. Fact: selling is, and must be, helpful.)
- Number 3 is solved by differentiating your brand for your customer. Visually, through design, typography, imagery, presentation and package design. Personality-wise through your language, attitude, commitment and passion. Expectation-wise in terms of the three phases of branding. Otherwise, the consumer will differentiate your brand for you (and price will determine your value since you’ve not added any value yourself).
- Number 4 is achieved by realizing this: If it bores you and doesn’t get you excited, it won’t be much different for anyone else. Keep at it unitl you get something that excites you, then test it on a few ordinary people who are similar to your customers (do not form a committee!) and see if they also get excited. Keep at it until you have something that excites more people than not.
- Number 5 comes to life when you realize you need something that inspires a bit of passion. A bit of excitement. And saying it in a way that echoes the values of your target audience. Remember: It’s not about you. It’s about them.
I am excited as I’ll be covering this and a lot more in next week’s 2 seminars I am conducting in Louisiana. For all you folks from Louisiana who are reading this, bring all your colleagues and friends. It’ll be a standing-room-only event.
Marketing and promotion done right does result in sales.