Now, More Than Ever, Marketing and Sales Should Work Together

I think that it would be a fair assumption to say that the biggest problem facing most businesses today is lower sales revenues. And while you can’t force people (and companies) to buy what they either can’t afford or don’t need, you can combine the forces of marketing and sales for better results. By effectively integrating the marketing and sales functions, a company is better able to uncover viable prospects, make the sales effort both more effective and more efficient, and jump-start sales in niche areas offering significant potential.

One of the fastest, most efficient, and most cost-effective methods for increasing sales volume is a program that combines targeted direct marketing (most often direct mail) with focused sales follow up. Using an example of a company selling a specialized welding tool as an example, here’s how it might work in a perfect world.

1. Sales and marketing jointly agree that a good target market for this tool would be shipbuilders. The defense department is on a ship-buying spree, and a number of new supply boats are going to be required to support a growing offshore drilling industry.
   
2. A program is designed to integrate targeted direct mail with sales follow up, and this program is communicated, even “sold,” to the company’s sales organization.
   
3. Databases are created and populated with the names of people, whose job title and/or job description would indicate that they could be in a position to influence the purchase of this kind of welding equipment.
   
4. Direct mailers are sent to the contacts. At the same time, all contact information is forwarded to the sales groups broken out by their territory (whether sales personnel are direct company employees, independent reps, or work for distributors).
   
5. The direct mailers will encourage the recipients to visit a special microsite on the Web, where they can find more information concerning the welding tool. Once on the microsite, the recipients will be encouraged to register (if only with their email address) in exchange for some sort of benefit (more technical information, a related white paper, a cap, etc.).
   
6. The contact information for those that register on the site is immediately forwarded to the appropriate sales person or sales organization. These contacts are the first priority for follow up. However, all sales personnel are provided with the names and contact information for all who received the mailer(s) in their territory. These contacts, too, should be considered as prospects…albeit lower priority prospects.
   
7. Sales personnel should be required to report back on prospects, particularly those “first priority” contacts who had registered on the site. This level of feedback can be very valuable going forward.
   
8. At any stage of the program until the very end, it can be evaluated based on the number of discrete visits to the microsite, people who registered, and sales calls made. Ultimately, a program of this nature is evaluated based on the amount of revenue generated.

It should also be noted that a program such as this should be regularly reviewed relative to its effectiveness, with in-depth discussions as to why or why not it is or is not generating the expected response. At that point, adjustments can be made, including the overall messaging, the offering, the amount of detail offered, and the payoff for the recipient.

There are a number of other ways sales and marketing can work together in a coordinated effort to boost sales, near-, mid-, and long-term. And perhaps the real point is that whatever type of program one engages, a real objective should be to merge the sales and marketing efforts for maximum effect and effectiveness.

THAT'S ONE OF THE KEY WAYS YOU WIN!