Southeast Michigan
There are many factors that can contribute to the success or failure of a business. A crucial one is revenue generation. Last month we touched on Five Business Dangers. The two that affect a business’s revenue are marketing and sales. We will dedicate this month’s topic to making distinctions between your Marketing and Sales efforts. It’s especially important that your company defines the role that its marketing and sales efforts need to play. For most companies, a mix of marketing and sales will be important. Depending on the product (or service) a company offers, a well-written product information or description may be all that is needed to generate a sale/transaction – think about the first iPhone and the long lines of willing buyers waiting to get their hands on one.
It is also important to think about KPIs (key performance indicators) for your marketing and sales efforts. People and positions also play a significant role and clarity for these is critical in driving success with your KPIs. Here are a few thoughts to help you define your marketing and/or sales:
- How are leads or opportunities created and by who or which department?
- How much support is needed to sell what you offer? Think Customer Service or Sales, or even something like Sales Engineer (a salesperson with engineering expertise)
- Is what you offer acquired transactionally (no or little help needed)?
- Is what you offer best supported through establishing a relationship? Think recurring revenue, professional service, repeat customer, referrals, etc.
- For either marketing and/or sales, what processes (steps) have you put into place?
Are the answers to the above questions unclear? If so, your team will be challenged to enhance your revenue performance.
It’s common for salespeople to be responsible for their own lead generation. This being said, it’s not unusual for marketing to be charged with generating leads – web leads, phone calls, etc. It can be extremely helpful to think about the KPIs for marketing and/or sales and to define the leading and lagging ones for each or both areas – leading ones are precursors to lagging ones, that often entail top- or bottom-line results. An example of lagging KPIs is revenue that has been received by your accounting department. For another company it may be sales revenue that is ‘booked’ through a PO (Purchase Order). Marketing efforts may often be gauged by the number of web leads, phone calls, or responses to a vanity phone number in the call to action of a given marketing offer.
Building or enhancing your revenue performance will depend on how well you define your marketing and/or sales process and efforts with established KPIs. Next will be the execution of each area (think strategy and tactics). To get into the specifics of your business’s marketing and/or sales efforts, we’ll need to rely on your candid assessment. Is it time to take stock to figure out where success or the lack of it is coming from?
In subsequent months we will examine, separately and in depth, Marketing, Sales, and each of the other Five Business Dangers. We will also provide a free assessment tool that will highlight specific gaps within the Five Business Dangers.
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