I was at a conference the other day with a bunch of True Small Business owners and one of the attendees made an interesting comment to me. He said he noticed that Infusion Software uses the term “marketing and sales” all the time. He added that everyone else out there uses the term “sales and marketing.” We had a good conversation about why the word “marketing” should come first–the fact is, most “sales problems” are not sales problems at all. They’re marketing problems. But that can be difficult for many business owners to wrap their brains around.
After all, it’s far more natural to attack a cash problem with sales mojo than it is to attack that same problem with marketing muscle. Too bad. It’s been my experience that most cash problems in a small business will re-surface when solved with sales mojo. But when the business owner applies marketing muscle, the so-called cash problems frequently go away… for good.
And that’s why we at Infusion Software like to use the term “marketing and sales.” When the business owner puts marketing first, the road is paved for strong, sustainable growth.
Your right! Businesses need to analyze how they market to new prospects and existing customers. Constantly review their marketing plan and update it. Doing things the old way of beating the pavement is not the most efficient or economical way to bring in new business. Getting your name/brand out there and target to the right type of potential leads on a regular basis will make it easier to fill the sales pipeline.
It’s amazing how many businesses I meet that don’t have a plan or the owner states we do things the way I did it years ago. But our sales are down and this software should solve it.
Comment by Joe Norcott — December 21, 2007 @ 7:56 pm
HI, I agree whole heartedly!!!!!! I was purely a sales person, until I teamed up with my brilliant business partner, Greg Milner and started Worldwide Salon Marketing. With Greg’s brilliant marketing knowledge and skills I quickly learned that if you have great marketing in your business your sales force can quickly become “order takers”. Your marketing should be so good that there is no need for a hard sales team, the hard sales team almost become “encouragers” for those customers that are still a little uncertain.
Jill x
Comment by jill groves — December 30, 2007 @ 9:53 pm
Well said, Julie. I completely agree.
Comment by Clate — January 3, 2008 @ 2:14 pm