thefunnel

A recent blog citing research done by ISTMA claims that an average sales person only spends about 40% doing direct selling. The rest is consumed by non sales, travel and administrative tasks, of which according to the research 25% is marketing related activities. A good marketing organization could therefore “create” 25% more selling time, which at least in theory translates to 25% more revenue, if all of it is used as effectively. How can marketing provide value add? I’ve come to conclusion a long time ago that at least the following needs to be considered. Providing alignment, direction (strategy) and training, lead generation, sales enablement tools creation, sales process automation and account planning intelligence. Recently I added a few things to my list. The first one is mindshare. For sales people that have many things to sell, how do you create mindshare? The other one which is the most difficult one is passion. Passion is the driver and the customers can feel it. It cannot be learned, but it can be experienced.

As an “outcome based”  marketeer it can sometimes be hard to let go of the metrics, but quite often this is exactly what is required to be successful. Activity based marketing versus outcome based. We all like to only do the things that are measurable, but what if the organization doesn’t really care about the metrics or strategies? Impact versus content. Someone once said that you’re only as good as your last power point presentation. Well, it depends. Sometimes you need to step in /up and  do the “right” things, even if they are not “perfect marketing things” or measurable, and make sure the fundamentals are covered. Things like does the sales people have the tools they need to be successful, never mind that you show up on google search or not.

Insightful video clip from Steve Jobs about marketing and branding. Create your story based on your core values, being clear what you’re about and what you stand for. Communicate clearly, with simplicity and consistency. Easy.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmG9jzCHtSQ