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As someone who has worked with many different businesses, I have gone to great lengths to understand how businesses run and how they market themselves. More specifically, I seek to understand what these businesses feel are their Marketing Critical Success Factors.
I hear everything from the simplistic (and may I say, shortsighted), “Marketing and Sales are the same thing” to the much more complex, “Marketing includes Product Requirements, Competitive Analysis, Brand Development, Pricing, Forecasting, Advertising, Social Media, and a whole host of other functions.”
Regardless of how pared down or intricate, I believe the most important function of marketing is that it draws prospects to the sales discussion. And Sales can help measure Marketing’s success simply by the number and quality of sales opportunities presented to them.
That being said, I truly believe that there are two keys that are critical to successfully marketing any business or service:
- Know Your Prospective Audience. Know who they are, what they are trying to accomplish and how they buy. It is important to understand how your offering affects them, not just espouse how your product works.
- Have a Unique Selling Proposition. Communicate what is unique about your offering so you don’t come across like everyone else. Then, based on what your audience is trying to accomplish, compel them to consider your offering by communicating What’s In It For Them (WIIFM).
The Sales function is most effective and efficient when the right prospects are brought to the table and sales is armed with the information needed to leverage the presence of these prospects. This means Sales has a clear understanding of both what to say and what to ask the prospect.
Most Marketing details the Features, Advantages and Benefits of the offering; and effective Marketing arms the Salesforce with a pipeline to key information which can be leveraged to enhance their approach in developing and spurring their clients’ motivation to buy.
We all want Sales to happen better. Bigger deals, faster results, a higher percentage of wins and higher margins. This is tough to do when we don’t understand the prospect, we have a weak selling proposition and sales does not know what expect when they engage with the prospect; so, it is imperative to implement a solid Marketing plan that will fuel your Sales pipeline and enhance your bottom line.
By Bob Dodge
