SALES vs MARKETING

Sales and Marketing work together!

Marketing generates the attention of the many people who make up your target market, whereas sales communicate with potential customers, putting the buying process into context.

It is the job of marketing to understand the target markets pains and to communicate with them. The content generated by marketing via blogs, YouTube videos, infographics, e-books, webinars, newsletters and the like are the “influencers” of our target market.

In the world of small business it is critical to understand each function and how they can work together to drive new business.

While marketing generates attention it also serves as the vehicle to create credibility and trust. In other words, before I buy your product or service I have to know who you are and why you are. Once that is established in the mind of a prospect then the call to action (the sales process) can take over.

Too many times a small business owner tries to sell a product or service without laying the “getting to know you” foundation. Technology has allowed us to speed up the process of getting attention and has also allowed us to better guide our prospects into the sales funnel process. The marketing and sales process have to blend together in order to succeed.

The most important term to remember is Attention Marketing which has the goal of generating revenue, not in dollars, but in terms of prospects. Signs that you have traction in your attention marketing include:

• Subscribers to your blog or newsletter
• E-mail signups
• Followers on Twitter and Facebook.(And other social media sites)
• LinkedIn connections
• Being asked to speak
• Being featured in a news article or on television or radio.

With traction you now can focus on the call to action or sales process and reap the rewards.

WORK UNTIL YOU NO LONGER HAVE TO INTRODUCE YOURSELF!

Advice and tips by Nick Petra – CFP, Mentor, and founder of BizQuack and StrategicDuck