![]() |
Marketing Resource Center |
|
|
Teaming Up Marketing and Sales
The Pitchers: Sales Let's say you have a new baseball team in town and it's almost time for the first game of the season. Your sales force is ready to sell a variety of package deals for the season. However, there's a major stumbling block as they prepare to approach potential buyers. No one knows about the package deals or even the date of the first game. No one tipped the local sports writer or the local TV news of the upcoming grand opening game. What happened to the marketing department? There's no marketing research, no publicity, and no idea where to begin targeting sales. Sales will flop and will make the sales department look bad, but it's marketing's fault since they didn't do their job. The Batters: Marketing Let's switch and see things from the marketing team's view. They do a grand job of posting banners of the first game in town. Marketing has pulled together piles of reports with data on the audience, their baseball attending habits, and game spending habits. Many people arrive for the game opener, buy a ticket for the game, and it's successful. Or is it really? The sales team is invisible. There is no one to build a relationship with the fans. No one has sold them packages for attending more than just the opener. Sales could go far beyond than one game. They could even help build relationships that go beyond the season. Marketing did a great job, but with poor sales the team may not make it and everyone loses. Where was sales when marketing promoted the event? Who gets the credit? Who gets the blame? In the war for profitable bottom line, turf issues should be put aside. Who's on First? Marketing and sales play for the same team in different positions. Marketing leads to sales by creating programs focused on direct marketing principles that are tied to the sales team's success. Marketing puts together a multi-step game plan to ensure each interaction with prospective fans lead to more and deeper interactions. Using shared business goals as a driver, the two work to meet those goals. Marketing and sales should constantly communicate with each other to ensure effective timing, clear understanding of the company's message, and smoother handoffs. Sales can determine the target market by evaluating current and past sales. The results help marketing professionals sharpen their pitch so they can hook the right people. Meryl K. Evans is the Content Maven behind meryl's notes, eNewsletter Journal, and The Remediator Security Digest. She is also a PC Today columnist and a tour guide at InformIT. She is geared to tackle your editing, writing, content, and process needs. The native Texan resides in Plano, Texas, a heartbeat north of Dallas, and doesn't wear a 10-gallon hat or cowboy boots.
MORE RESOURCES:
Marketing - Google News |
RELATED ARTICLES
7 Tips to Grab New Clients As a business professional, you probably realize the value of writing articles for print publications to telegraph your expertise. Have you considered that writing articles for online publications can build even more buzz for your business?Some professionals dismiss online articles because they lack the prestige of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. Turbo-Charge Your Viral Marketing- Five Easy Ways The world of marketing has changed. With increasingly better educated and more skeptical consumers, marketing methods must be increasingly accountable. 50 Benefits Of Joint Venture Marketing What Is A Joint Venture?A joint venture is an agreement in which two or morebusinesses work on a project for a set period of time.Joint ventures can be long-term, like promoting aproduct together, or some can be short-term, likebartering (trading) products and services. Ten Crucial Questions Ten Crucial Questions for Your Business Future I'ma business coach. I've worked with hundreds of small, medium and very large business, and over the course of the past eleven years, I've asked my business coaching clients endless questions which have helped them achieve much greater levels of success than they would have otherwise. The Battle of Positioning -- Altruism or Paranoia? Competition in the past has embodied such beliefs of "kill or get killed" which has fostered paranoia with many individuals and companies. Our competitive thinking has been to: defend, hoard, knock off competition, defame and win at any cost. Two Steps to Improving Your Marketing Success Since the human brain seems to be able to focus on only one thought at a time, it's difficult to evaluate an advertising idea from the perspective of both a marketer and a customer. That's why it's necessary to use a two-step process when developing highly effective ads, sales letters, web pages, and e-mails. Marketing Plans... A Simple Approach To Get Off The Marketing Roller Coaster Are You Riding The Marketing Roller Coaster?If you're like many of the small business owners or independent professionals I meet, then running and marketing your business can be like riding on a roller coaster. I'm picturing a roller coaster that mostly goes up and down as opposed to one that flips you upside-down or sends you around backwards. 7 Tips for Successful Postcard Marketing Simple low-cost postcards have become a valuable business tool for modern marketers. They can produce a surge of traffic to your web site or a flood of high-quality sales leads. Up Your Income Next Week: 13 Ways to Have a Sale Nothing gets people buying products or programs like a special promotion in your e-zine. Now, I know right now you're thinking, "I can't have a sale on my products or services. Sell Your Name, Not Your Product Do you know what the majority of people sell? I could not tell you what Michael Green sells, but if he does sell something, then I would probably buy it. His name is popular among the "Marketers". Your Plan For Marketing Success The most important, yet overlooked aspect of marketing is an actual written marketing plan A business simply cannot succeed without marketing. Whether you are a one person business or have 50 employees, you simply must have a marketing plan to succeed. Top 5 Tips For Media Selection Marketers have a wide variety of media at their disposal. Most of us think first of the advertising troika of newspapers, magazines and TV. Top 10 Ways to Create and Manage Opportunity Most of us are used to the concepts of risk management or time management. Many of the same principles can be applied to creating and responding to opportunities. Strategic Marketing and Tactical Marketing Know The Differences And Profit Most people mistakenly assume that when you talk about marketing, you're automatically talking about "Tactical" marketing - placing ads, generating leads, sending out mailers, attending trades shows, creating brochures, implementing a follow-up system, and so forth.They fail to realize that the "Strategic" side of the coin - what you say, how you say it, and who you say it to - is almost always MORE important than the marketing medium of WHERE you say it. Do You Have This Important Tool in Your Marketing Arsenal? Many business owners do not understand the authenticity and validation that a simple toll-free number adds to their business presence.It is particularly important that any business owner whose market is not exclusively local consider beefing up the image of the business with a toll-free number. The Path To Your Prospects Wallet Begins At His Heart You want your prospect to make the decision to buy your product or service. So you show him what you have to offer in your sales letter, web page, ad or commercial. Creating a Marketing Plan for Your Website Have you created a marketing plan for your Website? If not, it is time to think about developing one. An Internet marketing plan helps you make the right day-to-day and long term decisions. Stretching The String: Five Tips To Maximize Your Marketing When You Are On A Shoe String Budget "I know I need to market my business in order to grow my business, but right now I can't afford it."I have heard this statement numerous times from business owners that are struggling to stay in business. How Much Is Your Popcorn Worth? Powerful Lessons In Marketing & The Psychology Of Selling - Part 4 Let's continue to discuss the various marketing principles that are involved in "popcorn marketing":4. Engaging the "Senses" You may already know that people usually buy for 'emotional' reasons more than 'intellectual' reasons. Marketing For Just Cause Cause marketing is a relationship between a for-profit and a nonprofit that brings in money and resources for the nonprofit, while providing credibility and goodwill for the business.According to the IEG Sponsorship Report, this category grew to $733 million in the US in 2001. |
| home | site map | Advertising Articles |
| © 2006 |