{"id":12454,"date":"2015-05-18T13:30:25","date_gmt":"2015-05-18T17:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/?p=12454"},"modified":"2015-05-18T13:32:59","modified_gmt":"2015-05-18T17:32:59","slug":"marketing-at-the-speed-of-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/sales-and-marketing\/2015\/05\/marketing-at-the-speed-of-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Marketing at the Speed of Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"OnlineSales and marketing are often considered to be the same thing, but nothing could be farther from the truth. In our industry, or any industry for that matter, you often see positions offered for a VP of Sales & Marketing. While I do believe there are talented and qualified candidates out there, I will say that seldom do you find greatness in both sales and marketing in one single person. These are both positions where you would want strong experience and education. \u00a0I have to laugh when I review their job descriptions, which mostly define and require a strong sales background and very little marketing experience, and the marketing skillset is clearly positioned as a second place requirement.\u00a0 It brings to mind the age old question of, \u201cWhat have you done for me lately?\u201d It\u2019s not something a sales leader jokes about these days.<\/p>\n

The Difference between Sales and Marketing<\/strong><\/p>\n

The pressure on sales leaders for solid sales results is intense and as such, it\u2019s not uncommon for owners and sales leaders to push harder on sales activity and actions (the areas they know more about) vs. developing new marketing strategies.\u00a0 In as much, the day-to-day execution of business, like the job postings mentioned above, you often find a college intern holding the marketing position, which seldom delivers the greatest possible results from a marketing standpoint. \u00a0No one questions the heart of a very talented and willing college intern, but the best experience for your company will come from a true marketing professional who can deliver professional marketing.<\/p>\n

Sales needs marketing and marketing needs sales. When both positions are present within a company, it doesn\u2019t take very long to notice that these two leaders are worlds apart in many aspects. Sales wants everything immediately while marketing, I promise, will want to study, review and analyze the impact of everything.\u00a0 Both have to change for the better.<\/p>\n

Why You Need Marketing<\/strong><\/p>\n

So if you don\u2019t have a true marketing professional onboard, there\u2019s your first problem, and if you do have one, they must have a servant\u2019s heart to assist the company and sales in driving success.\u00a0 Your sales leader must provide constant (positive) feedback to adjust your sales team\u2019s execution. With the speed of business today, no company can stand sluggish marketing performance, nor can they withstand poor sales results.<\/p>\n

In every boot camp I\u2019ve ever done, a VP of Sales asks me this question, \u201cHow can you help me differentiate my company?\u201d\u00a0 That statement screams, \u2018I need a marketing professional!\u2019\u00a0 It really doesn\u2019t matter what size company you are. I hear smaller dealers claim, \u201cWe just can\u2019t afford a marketing professional right now, but when we get a little larger, that will be a serious consideration.\u201d\u00a0 Most don\u2019t attribute the use of high quality marketing as a way to grow your business, but it is.\u00a0 It\u2019s the chicken and the egg consideration; they say, \u2018When we get large enough we\u2019ll hire a marketing professional,\u2019 but the thing is, if you hired a marketing professional you\u2019d grow today. You need effective marketing now!<\/p>\n

The truth is, there ARE companies who are not yet large enough to hire a full time marketing professional. My thoughts are simple\u2014we are all selling MPS which is an outsourcing model, so, eat your own cooking and seek to outsource your marketing. Find someone within the industry who has a full competency of marketing and buy some talent. It\u2019s like life insurance\u2014there is never a better time to buy than today. Buy what you can afford today and focus it on the more critical areas of need.<\/p>\n

MPS and Marketing<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since I brought up MPS, let me talk about a gigantic misconception around MPS that high quality marketing can completely satisfy. First, I hear dealers all across the U.S. tell me they\u2019re selling MPS.\u00a0 Their website says so, their sales reps say so, but they don\u2019t really understand the values of MPS or what they\u2019re selling. Within this acronym, MPS, the most important letter is \u201cM.\u201d<\/p>\n

I ask dealers or their sales reps, \u201cWhat does the M stand for?\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s not a hard question to answer and most say, \u201cManaged.\u201d\u00a0 But when I ask them, \u201cWhat do you manage?\u201d I get a bazillion answers mostly about clicks, devices, printer fleets, copies, etc. This shows you that marketing is missing.\u00a0 A marketing professional will define to sales the value of each of their deliverables.\u00a0 The facts are that you manage a portion of your client\u2019s business typically better than they do and probably to a level of performance that they\u2019ll never be able to reach, usually providing a significant financial benefit and always delivering an uptick in organizational performance.<\/p>\n

Defining Your Marketing Plan<\/strong><\/p>\n

A true marketing professional will absorb your key business objectives and design an overall marketing execution plan to move your company forward.\u00a0 Once the 30,000-foot view is created, the details and individual programs and plans will be defined.\u00a0 Each of these areas must be defined in very specific steps with details on how they contribute to the key business objectives of the company.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Your company\u2019s profile and position in the marketplace.<\/li>\n
  2. The products or services your company will take to market.<\/li>\n
  3. Primary targets within your marketplace for those services.<\/li>\n
  4. What type of advertising, website and support collateral will you need and what does it look like?<\/li>\n
  5. What is your value proposition to whom and for which deliverables?<\/li>\n
  6. What is the profile and skillset required for your sales organization?<\/li>\n
  7. What specialized training will you need to provide?<\/li>\n
  8. What is your sales cycle and sales process?<\/li>\n
  9. What tools are needed to ensure success and accountability?<\/li>\n
  10. What does your \u201cgo to market\u201d timeline and execution look like?<\/li>\n
  11. How and when do you make adjustments to your plan?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    These marketing deliverables are so often misplaced onto great and loyal team members, but it shouldn\u2019t take too much of a review to see and feel the seriousness of these tasks.\u00a0 Without the proper marketing plan you will look like everyone out there and you won\u2019t have any type of differentiation.<\/p>\n

    Out-performing your competition doesn\u2019t happen by accident. It typically comes from a marketing plan that almost always was dreamt up, created and worked through months or sometimes a year beforehand.\u00a0 With the speed of business today, you can\u2019t work from behind\u2014your marketing efforts must position your company ahead of the competition. Take a look at the list above to find out what you\u2019re missing and if you don\u2019t have the talent within your company, do some research and find someone who can fill that gap. But as I mentioned above, make sure you have a high quality, extremely detailed marketing execution plan, and then grow!<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Sales and marketing are often considered to be the same thing, but nothing could be farther from the truth. In our industry, or any industry for that matter, you often see positions offered for a VP of Sales & Marketing. While I do believe there are talented and qualified candidates out there, I will say that seldom do you find greatness in both sales and marketing in one single person. These are both positions where you would want strong experience and education. \u00a0I have to laugh when I review their job descriptions, which mostly define and require a strong sales background and very little marketing experience, and the marketing skillset is clearly positioned as a second place requirement.\u00a0 It brings to mind the age old question of, \u201cWhat have you done for me lately?\u201d It\u2019s not something a sales leader jokes about these days. The Difference between Sales and Marketing The pressure on sales leaders for solid sales results is intense and as such, it\u2019s not uncommon for owners and sales leaders to push harder on sales activity and actions (the areas they know more about) vs. developing new marketing strategies.\u00a0 In as much, the day-to-day execution of business, like the job postings mentioned above, you often find a college intern holding the marketing position, which seldom delivers the greatest possible results from a marketing standpoint. \u00a0No one questions the heart of a very talented and willing college intern, but the best experience for your company will come from a true marketing professional who can deliver professional marketing. Sales needs marketing and marketing needs sales. When both positions are present within a company, it doesn\u2019t take very long to notice that these two leaders are worlds apart in many aspects. Sales wants everything immediately while marketing, I promise, will want to study, review and analyze the impact of everything.\u00a0 Both have to change for the better. Why You Need Marketing So if you don\u2019t have a true marketing professional onboard, there\u2019s your first problem, and if you do have one, they must have a servant\u2019s heart to assist the company and sales in driving success.\u00a0 Your sales leader must provide constant (positive) feedback to adjust your sales team\u2019s execution. With the speed of business today, no company can stand sluggish marketing performance, nor can they withstand poor sales results. In every boot camp I\u2019ve ever done, a VP of Sales asks me this question, \u201cHow can you help me differentiate my company?\u201d\u00a0 That statement screams, \u2018I need a marketing professional!\u2019\u00a0 It really doesn\u2019t matter what size company you are. I hear smaller dealers claim, \u201cWe just can\u2019t afford a marketing professional right now, but when we get a little larger, that will be a serious consideration.\u201d\u00a0 Most don\u2019t attribute the use of high quality marketing as a way to grow your business, but it is.\u00a0 It\u2019s the chicken and the egg consideration; they say, \u2018When we get large enough we\u2019ll hire a marketing professional,\u2019 but the thing is, if you hired a marketing professional you\u2019d grow today. You need effective marketing now! The truth is, there ARE companies who are not yet large enough to hire a full time marketing professional. My thoughts are simple\u2014we are all selling MPS which is an outsourcing model, so, eat your own cooking and seek to outsource your marketing. Find someone within the industry who has a full competency of marketing and buy some talent. It\u2019s like life insurance\u2014there is never a better time to buy than today. Buy what you can afford today and focus it on the more critical areas of need. MPS and Marketing Since I brought up MPS, let me talk about a gigantic misconception around MPS that high quality marketing can completely satisfy. First, I hear dealers all across the U.S. tell me they\u2019re selling MPS.\u00a0 Their website says so, their sales reps say so, but they don\u2019t really understand the values of MPS or what they\u2019re selling. Within this acronym, MPS, the most important letter is \u201cM.\u201d I ask dealers or their sales reps, \u201cWhat does the M stand for?\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s not a hard question to answer and most say, \u201cManaged.\u201d\u00a0 But when I ask them, \u201cWhat do you manage?\u201d I get a bazillion answers mostly about clicks, devices, printer fleets, copies, etc. This shows you that marketing is missing.\u00a0 A marketing professional will define to sales the value of each of their deliverables.\u00a0 The facts are that you manage a portion of your client\u2019s business typically better than they do and probably to a level of performance that they\u2019ll never be able to reach, usually providing a significant financial benefit and always delivering an uptick in organizational performance. Defining Your Marketing Plan A true marketing professional will absorb your key business objectives and design an overall marketing execution plan to move your company forward.\u00a0 Once the 30,000-foot view is created, the details and individual programs and plans will be defined.\u00a0 Each of these areas must be defined in very specific steps with details on how they contribute to the key business objectives of the company. Your company\u2019s profile and position in the marketplace. The products or services your company will take to market. Primary targets within your marketplace for those services. What type of advertising, website and support collateral will you need and what does it look like? What is your value proposition to whom and for which deliverables? What is the profile and skillset required for your sales organization? What specialized training will you need to provide? What is your sales cycle and sales process? What tools are needed to ensure success and accountability? What does your \u201cgo to market\u201d timeline and execution look like? How and when do you make adjustments to your plan? These marketing deliverables are so often misplaced onto great and loyal team members, but it shouldn\u2019t take too much of a review to see and feel the seriousness of these tasks.\u00a0 Without the proper marketing plan you will look like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1866],"tags":[1800,2192],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12454"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12454"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12458,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12454\/revisions\/12458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}