Two major business components that are often put head to head are marketing and sales. Both are pivotal in bringing revenue into the organization, but there has always been a debate about which of these two the business should focus on more to achieve more success in today’s competitive environment. Why is this?
If are you also are torn between your sales and marketing team, then it’s time to change that thinking and instead view these activities as secret tools which you should use hand in hand with each other so that you can achieve your business goals more efficiently.
Marketing = Creating Customers
In order to understand how sales and marketing overlap, a thorough understanding of their concept should be established first. As Peter Drucker said, “The purpose of a business is to create a customer”, to which he added: “It is more expensive to gain a customer than to retain existing ones.” Drucker also went to say that “Two of the most important functions of a business are Innovation and Marketing.”
What these statements from Peter Drucker mean is that aside from a unique and innovative proposition and business mindset, marketing is the other gear that makes it possible for your business to roam around the market and pick up the right customers who will truly benefit from your product and service offerings. Marketing and innovation are two revenue-generating factors that make a business stand out from the competition, and as such, should always be priority.
In today’s context, having your best foot forward in marketing can help you stay on top of the game while delivering great value to your customer. New technologies are on the field, and the preference of the market is as dynamic as ever. Businesses cannot afford to ignore these changes.
Sales: Getting Things Done
It is true that without marketing, there would be no prospects and leads to follow-up, but it is also important to understand that without sales, then there wouldn’t be anything to fuel the business day-to-day operations!
In a most basic sense, marketing is responsible for reaching out and building relationships with potential customers through various strategies and tactics. In a modern marketing landscape, this could include emails, blogs, social media post etc., as well as other traditional methods such as flyers, newsletters, and trade shows.
Marketing ensures that these potential customers have all the required knowledge and incentives so that they can be advanced further into the sales funnel. Not only that, but it also ensures that these customers will come back as loyal to the brand after they made the purchase.
Once marketing has done its job, it is up to sales to get things done. To close the deals. To convert leads into a more valuable asset called customers.
Sales builds one on one relationship with the customer, making sure that each of them develops interest over the company first before they sign the contract and pay for their purchase. The salesperson, upon the initial contact, assesses the specific needs of the customers and provides solutions that are tailored-fit top their requirements. Through various prospecting methods such as networking, referral generation, email marketing and inbound marketing, salespeople can turn leads into profitable customers. Without these talented individuals, the business cannot sustain its daily operations and will not be able to achieve its goals.
Marketing and Sales: Why They Should Work Together?
The dynamics of sales and marketing is rapidly changing in today’s digital age. Marketing nurtures the relationship with the prospects longer than ever before, and a lot of organizations are bringing in lead qualifiers into marketing department – a role which used to sit in sales.
With marketing making the leads a lot “warmer”, the sales team can now close the deals faster, which also results in a better and faster revenue cycle. That said, it is important that these two groups should be highly linked and not be kept separate in order to move prospects from one level to another in the sales funnel.
If your business currently houses different departments for these two groups, make sure they talk and communicate with each other. With the different talents of sales and marketing working harmoniously towards a common goal, they can certainly bring your business to greater heights of success.
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