Not ANOTHER post about the difference between sales and marketing!
Nope. This one’s about similarities. It’s also about questions and why finding the right ones is critical if you want marketing to be effective.
If I was in this for clicks I’d pop a handy little table in here with columns headed: ‘Sales is…’ and ‘Marketing is…’ and then sit back and watch the arguments rage.
But not everything important in B2B sales and marketing falls into a neat listicle order.
So here’s my take:
Marketing’s most important role (or at least the promotional part of it) is to secure a steady flow of GOOD QUALITY leads. It should prime and warm those leads so they’re easier to close.
Not controversial. But here’s where the questions start flowing…
What is a good sales lead?
- Are sales and marketing cultivating the same definition of a good quality lead? Or is everyone focused on hitting their own targets and chucking MQLs over the wall?
- Is there a feedback loop to refine the understanding of the ideal customer profile and improve the lead-gen process (quality, not just quantity)?
- Is there a continuous line that connects the ideal customer with your market segmentation, positioning and messaging?
- Do sales and marketing tell the same story and agree what marketing assets are needed?
Sales and marketing basics: know your ideal customer
An excellent place to start is by identifying the characteristics of prospects that generate better margins and higher lifetime value. In my experience few smaller businesses really have this nailed down. If you can pull it off it helps in many ways.
You can configure your offer and messaging to appeal more directly to these high value prospects.
Your lead-gen process can subtly filter out the time wasters and bargain hunters. Leaving you free to focus on the leads that matter.
If you can resolve all of these questions there’ll be more cooperation, less conflict and probably more profit. You’ll worry less about what fits where in the remits of sales and marketing.
Answers are only as useful as the questions you ask
In business, the questions we choose to ask deliver answers. And answers drive our decisions and our plans.
Which makes our questions…Significant. Certainly they are if you want a coherent marketing strategy.
If you ask: ‘how can we get more leads?’ you’ll identify ways to get more leads. Which could just mean cranking up the paid search budget.
What if the question was ‘how can we get better leads?’ First you have to come back to the point I made above about drawing a more detailed and evidence-based picture of what a good lead looks like.
‘How can we improve margins?’ has an obvious cost-cutting answer. ‘How can we improve margins without cutting costs?’ is tougher.
Suddenly you have to know (really know) where you make money. Which products, services and prospects are the most profitable?
A more intricate question certainly, but one with a more valuable answer.
Perspective and context
Questions emerge from our perspective. Your market sits outside of the walls of your business – so maybe that’s the place to stand.
One advantage of working with somebody like me is that I’m not part of your organisation. I won’t see things the way you do. I’ll ask loads of questions and challenge some of the beliefs you think are self-evident. But it’s all in the cause of earning you more sales.
Good questions you could ask include:
- ‘Why are some businesses our customers and others not?’
- ’If I didn’t work for this business how would I even know we exist?’
- ‘What impression would I have of our business if I only had our marketing to judge us by?
- ‘What would get my attention if I were a prospect?’
The best questions of all are the ones your prospects are asking
Final thought: does your marketing answer the questions prospects really ask?
‘How can we..?’
‘Why does X keep happening?’
‘Is there a better way to..?’
There are always better questions and more valuable answers. I’ll help you find them.