Why do businesses fail?

Part 2: Ineffective Sales and Marketing

By: Jeremi Bauer

Many business leaders, especially business leaders of small and medium sized companies, think like this: we have a great product/service, we have differentiated our offering from the competition, and, quite frankly, our sales team has years of experience … people will buy our products/services so we don’t need to worry about all that sales and marketing hocus pocus.

Alternatively some believe ‘we don’t need a sales training program, we’re a small company and not only is sales training for bigger companies, it’s wicked expensive and we’ll never see a Return on Investment (ROI).’  I know this to be true because these statements came from the mouths of some business owners I have personally worked for in the past!  YIKES!!!!  Needless to say, that’s flat out not the way to think if you want to stay in business for the long haul.  Part 2 of this eight part series deals with ineffective sales and marketing.

You might be thinking  ‘OK, you’ve made me curious now’.  So what is effective sales and marketing?”  GREAT QUESTION!!!  Let’s start by referring back to the first part in this series: effective sales and marketing stem from planning.  I’ll discuss sales and the sales planning process first, since most business owners believe this will grow their business the fastest.  Looking back to Part 1, planning begins with research.  For sales planning, this process takes a granular approach, starting first with your prospect or your existing customer and can go up to 30,000 feet depending on your business and sales cycle.

The Sales GURU!!! 

I have been following an organization by the name of Sales Sense Solutions since 2007. The CEO, Mike Krause, has an amazing program geared specifically toward increasing sales through proper sales planning.  Mike has a great video blog series available on Vimeo with short tips and strategies to increase sales effectiveness.  Mike hosted an online talk show aimed specifically at effective selling strategies, including guests such as, Mike Brooks, Wendy Weiss, Mike O’Neil, Jeffrey Gitomer and Lori Ruff to name just a few.  Mike is also the author of a breakthrough new book “Sell or Sink” that brings sales planning and process into the 21^st century.  I have included several links to Mike’s great work and encourage you to visit his organization’s websites (www.SalesSenseSolutions.com, http://www.SellorSink.com) to learn more about effective selling.

EFFECTIVE SELLING 

OK, so now you’re probably thinking, ‘so you’ve put a plug in for a friend, what am I supposed to do, figure out your message by visiting his site?’  Well, yes, if you want every important detail and to get acquainted with a great sales coach to help you increase revenue.  After all, he is the expert!  However, I will give you a hint at what you’ll be learning by visiting Sales Sense Solutions.  As I mentioned before, effective selling starts with research.  You should be able to answer questions such as:

(a) Who is my target?

(b) Who is the decision maker(s)?

(c)  What is the decision making process?

(d) How do they buy?

(e) Who are the influencers in the decision making process? (you may be surprised by this answer)

(f)  Who are my competitors?

(g) How do they sell to this prospect?

(h) What are my prospects pain points?

(i)   Do they have the budget for my product/service?

(j)   When do they plan to make a decision?

…   and  a score of other questions that will enable you to learn as much information as possible to effectively sell to this prospect/customer.

Mike has said before, and I agree with him completely, that the worst thing a sales person, or organization, can do is to be unprepared for a selling engagement.  By answering the above questions, and many others, you are preparing for those engagements and you will start down the path to effective – and successful – selling.

EFFECTIVE MARKETING 

‘OK, so what about effective marketing, how do I accomplish this? I figure that my brochures and my sales people are my best marketing pieces!’  Not if we’re talking effective marketing versus ineffective marketing.  To be sure, your sales people will get the word out about your products and services; and your brochures can reinforce your message with your prospect if they were written correctly.  But these tools are selling tools and not marketing tools per se.

‘What’s the difference?’ you ask.  Well, marketing is what you do to reach your prospects and persuade them that you are the right company to solve their pain.  Sales is everything you do to complete the transaction once the prospect’s interest has been established.  Marketing, again, begins with research by answering questions such as:

(a) Who is our target audience?

(b) What are our target demographics

(c) What geographical area are we targeting

(d) Can that geography be profitable

… and many more.

The idea in this first part is to get quantifiable, granular, information to make sound strategic decisions.  The next step is to conduct a SWOTT analysis, I spoke about this in the first part of this series and I have placed a template in the business tools section for your use.  Now it’s time to identify your COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE (CA). Your research will give you a clear idea of your unique selling position (USP), the message that you will want to convey to your target audience.  After you have gone through these processes, you can then choose the method through which you will convey your message.  Your marketing methods could include:

(a) Traditional print in a magazine (preferably one that your audience reads)

(b) Email campaign

(c)  Telemarketing

(d) Website redesign

(e) Social media page (see my earlier post about, “The State of the Internet”

(f)  Radio and television spots

(g) Search engine optimization (SEO) and others

The point I am trying to make here is that too many small and medium sized businesses rely on old, outdated, and ineffective sales and marketing strategies to promote their businesses.  Or they have jumped on the Web 2.0 bandwagon by starting a half-hearted social media page only to discover that their ROI is wanting.  

If you plan your sales and marketing efforts properly, you will be successful, I guarantee it!  If it’s in your budget, work with a professional sales training consultant, such as Mike Krause with Sales Sense Solutions.  If working with a dynamite consultant is not in your budget, make sure you do your research and plan thoroughly before you start making calls.  If you don’t research and plan first, you won’t have a budget to worry about, because your customers will choose your competition. OUCH!!!!!

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them here and I will get back to you.

All the best,

Jeremi Bauer