There is an endless debate over the effectiveness of marketing efforts and campaigns.
That, typically, comes from sales professionals.
“What a dumb campaign. There is 0% conversion potential.”
“Okay. 100,000 impressions and 100 likes. And?”
Okay. Let us assume there is a 10% chance that the noisy salespeople are actually correct.
What can we do?
Marketing from a Sales Department Point-of-View
One disclaimer. I write based on my daily observations and working experience.
Your exposure might be different from mine, and that is fine too. And this is my point.
The natural tension between Sales and Marketing can be resolved.
I type can be because we can iron things out with great teamwork.
Sales professionals have a challenging job. Of course, marketers are not cruising along without encountering road humps. But we must take note of one point.
The incentive structure for sales professionals determines their thinking and outlook. They must sell more to earn more.
Sales folks get a cut of the contract value in the form of commissions (typically 2%, 5%, 8% of contract value). This is the scalable component.
Do take note. The base pay for sales professionals is typically low. So, they fight hard for their monetary upside.
Read that again. Read it 10 times.
As such, they are practical people. They are, by and large, not interested in social media impressions, email subscriptions, followers, website visits, and audience engagement in a seminar.
They are interested in the following.
The number of leads generated from an event.
The number of qualified leads ready to speak to them.
The potential sizing of a foreseeable contract value.
There will be more, I know. However, the points above are sufficient to demonstrate one point. They take a high interest in metrics leading to a sales closure.
Anything else is a nice-to-have.
The debate on job descriptions happens here.
This is where the sales professionals do not see the contribution of marketers. This is also the exact point where marketers are perpetually disappointed because their value-add is not appreciated.
I do not mean to dramatize this situation. However, such stories are all around.
Have you spoken to your friends in marketing or your marketing director recently? Buy them a cup of black. Hear what they say.
It will be different versions of this story.
Our YouTube Channel – Knowledge Topics
On our Youtube Channel, we produce content to uncover topics that permeate all walks of life. Our community can understand what it means to be in the trenches of our interest.
Here are some topics of interest we recorded with high viewership:
Search Engine Optimization (S.E.O.).
Why we buy what we buy.
Mindset and Career.
Marketing on a Dime.
Green Technology.
Robotic Era.
Mental Health.
Our goal is to share our research with our community from a practitioner's standpoint.
Summary
We need to be effective listeners.
Because when we do, we can separate the noise from the truth.
And the truth is, salespeople may be right at certain things.
So we listen. Act. And improve on our work.
That way, we can become superstar marketers.
The job of Bottomsup Perspective is to research, discuss, and share our findings so our community can grow with us.
This topic is one example of sharing our practitionership.
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