Marketing and Sales…Perfect Together

We do a fair amount of partnering with marketing firms who will bring us in to assist them in providing follow ups to some of the projects they are running. For example, they may write white papers for their clients and then set up a system so prospects can download these white papers. They will then have us provide initial follow ups on these leads that were developed and then pass the hotter leads on to their sales team to close the deal.

I was in a conversation recently where a question came up about return on investment when it comes to marketing. I think that the breakdowns will definitely change based on industry and how much attracting clients plays a part in growth compared to a company that is more sales oriented.

We are finding that more clients are looking closer at return on investment for their particular form of marketing, although some are easier to track than others. It is relatively easy to see who downloaded a white paper from your website and then follow up on those leads to turn them into business, but a little harder to track the client you cold called who then Googled the company to find your website, Facebook page, Twitter account, LinkedIn profile, etc. and based their decision to even talk to you partially on what they read there.

Sales and marketing have always had a close relationship, often like brothers and sisters: sometimes they fight, other times they try to ignore that the other exists, but they always work better when respecting what the other brings to the table so they can work together.

Integrating Your Sales and Marketing Efforts for the Best Results

In a recent post wrote I spoke of how it’s getting to be that time of year when smart salespeople are trying to meet their annual quota, as well as building and strengthening relationships during the holiday season, and clients are working on their budgets. As I wrote that article, I was reminded of a conversation we at Randolph Sterling once had with a client. We mentioned to them that, based on the trial program we were running, if they were to invest $150,000 in our solution, we could pretty much guarantee an additional $2-3 million in sales. It is a great return on investment, however they had to determine if they had the $150,000 to invest, and, if so, would they be willing to invest it on this solution or someplace else.

Many of us right now are struggling with similar questions. For example, this October, we at Randolph Sterling, where we have strong sales culture, were left seriously contemplating how much of our 2011 budget we should allocate towards our marketing efforts and how we should divide our marketing budget amongst the different tools we implement, whether they be our email marketing campaign, our blog (which you’re reading now), our various social media efforts, including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, or any number of other more traditional efforts. (Thank you Gini for your excellent video blogs on these topics).

However, we often see that many clients, whether due to their culture, or for some other reasons, believe they have to choose between sales (going out to look for customers) or marketing (drawing customers to them). Both are incredibly valuable, but unfortunately, it seems that too many companies focus on one over the other rather than developing a strong integrated plan. Here’s an example.

The marketing-focused company sends out a very nice post card to targeted prospects and hopes that they decide to call to use their services. The sales-focused company cold calls those same targeted prospects. Both get decent results, but the company who integrates the two by sending out the well thought out postcard and then has their sales team follow up on it by calling those targeted contacts most likely gets a better result than the other two because (in theory anyway) the guy who responds to the marketing effort follows the call to action on the postcard and calls the company that sent it, while the guy who responds to the sales effort doesn’t remember the postcard but returns the voicemail the salesperson left. However, a third group of people emerges who got the postcard and had a level of interest, but not enough to actually call themselves. They receive the follow up call and feel a little more familiar with the company because they remember seeing the logo from the postcard as the salesperson talks to them. Those that implement both sales and marketing efforts (again, in theory anyway) therefore are likely to get responses from all three groups.

With this said, it is important to point out that many people who went into marketing did not go into marketing to be salespeople, many people who went into sales did not go into sales to do marketing, and many people when starting their business had no real desire to do either, even though, oftentimes, both are required for the best results. So, where do you go from here?

The first answer that comes to mind is you can do it on your own. You can do it yourself. Someone else at your company can do it. Or you can bring in an additional person or two to fill these roles in-house. To once more use ourselves as an example, we are a sales solutions company, but we have an in-house Social Media Director, Daniel Nuccio, who handles our email marketing campaigns and manages our blog and social media accounts, while we maintain close relationships with marketing companies with many different specialties to help us and our clients with other tasks (more on this later).

However, you may not feel comfortable filling these roles yourself. Or you may believe that the time of you and your employees would be better spent elsewhere. And you may find that bringing on one or two new people may be too costly.

So, then what? You bring in an outside team or two. At Randolph Sterling, we offer a number of outsourced sales services for both short term and long term sales solutions. And, for your marketing needs, we at Randolph Sterling have partnered with a number of marketing firms with different areas of expertise so that we can better offer a full solution to our clients.

Look Who’s Tweeting: Learning to Better Implement the Social Media

I had a meeting Wednesday with our social media intern, the topic of which basically was that I don’t blog, tweet, or tell the world what I am doing enough. I like and respect our social media intern, Daniel Nuccio. He is a bright kid who really knows his stuff, and the reason that we hired him was that after sitting through several seminars and talks on social media, I learned two very important things: (1) we really need to get involved with social media more than we have been, even if it is just to evaluate for ourselves if it is a way for us to find new clients or if it is just a fad; and (2) I was probably never going to put the time in by myself to do this right.

There are many reasons for me to have come to the second conclusion, everything from being a small business owner (which in my world means wearing several hats from the “big boss” and managing our inside and outside sales reps and sales management team to being the guy who makes sure the garbage is taken out in the office) to believing that although I’m probably a decent enough guy, most people don’t want to about every breath I take or every move I make. According to Daniel, that is not the case. He assured me that people want to know more about me and about Randolph Sterling, Inc. than just that we are a sales management and outsourced sales company or when our next peer advisory group meeting is going to be held. I greatly enjoy developing relationships with clients but am used to doing it one on one, face to face, not so much in the public eye. I can understand people would potentially be interested in me talking about the trade show I went to yesterday and the program we are running for trade show follow up, or my trip down to our Raleigh office to evaluate some software we plan to implement to help us stay in better contact with our clients, but do people really want to know about the great day I had on Saturday when I ended up shopping for a one year old’s Bob Marley t-shirt (who knew they even existed?) instead of a new car? Are the people searching for articles that include Bob Marley looking for the kind of sales help I can provide?

I promised Daniel that I would make a more conscious effort to write more—heck one day I can put all of this together and write that second book that has been eluding me—but now this brings up a whole new problem: I’m a sales guy at heart, always have been, always will be. I’ve been selling since I was a little kid trying to convince my parents to let me stay up an hour later at bedtime (I guess I was pretty good back then since now I never seem to get enough sleep). How in the heck am I going to be able to “tweet?” 140 characters, really? As a sales guy, I like to paint a picture. Ask any of us what time it is and you will most often get a little bit about how to build a clock. I did make a promise so I will start with some random parts of my life since Saturday:

• Had a great day today…had planned on looking for a car but ended up having the best day in months looking for a present for a one year old. Company does matter.
• Had fun watching football today, but think my Roethlisberger jersey has been cursed—Steelers lost and I got heckled by a Cincinnati fan!
• Busy day in the office…have had good success on Aaron Equipment project but know more about waste treatment than anyone should!
• Getting ready for the holiday rush. It is always a busy time for us when companies push to reach their sales goals and ask us for help.
• That’s right, the holidays are coming! Time to start planning my holiday display for the house and the Toys for Tots drive.
• Working on the website…has needed an update for some time now. Want it to be more interactive for clients. What would you like to see on it?
• Have been bouncing around ideas for a charity event—something I have wanted to do for years. We should all be giving back
• Just finished a day talking to clients about next year. In an hour was an “expert” in sales of tech, mfg., accounting, and staffing. I love the diversity of our clients.
• Went to a trade show for a client. Saw some good opportunities for him, but even more for us. Will be going back tomorrow with Art.
• Customer service matters. After sitting in traffic for 2 hours in Chicago on my way to McCormick Place. Parking lot attendant from yesterday remembered me & welcomed me back.
• Sat in on a social media presentation at FabTech show in Chicago…ok, ok, I promise to tweet more!
• Art made some good connections at FabTech for sales management and for having our team follow up on leads for them. Now let’s turn them into business.
• Ran into my buddy Brad from softball as I was leaving the trade show. Talked a bit about biz and I think I have a good connection for him!
• Played basketball 2 nights in a row and can still walk! Tuesday played great defense and Wednesday I scored a lot. Always enjoy playing ball with the guys.
• Up early and off to the Raleigh office for a few days. Hoping to close deal to provide SAM Peer Advisory Groups for Business Clubs of America.
• Have you ever been sitting on a plane, ready to take off only to have your plane go “out of service?” What does that mean exactly?
• I like biographies so now I am reading Alonzo Mourning’s autobiography. Courageous, charitable, inspirational man. We can all learn from people like this.
• Finally found us another plane…but this one has maintenance problems! Apparently the big problem was no water for coffee. Coffee…really?
• Up safely in the air as I write this article and again wonder why I fly so much. I should hit Platinum status on my next flight. I like seeing clients face to face though.

So there they are, my random thoughts. I hope this gives you just a little bit more insight into me. I promise to write more and please, make comments so I can get to know you all better.