Selling predates marketing by a considerable number of centuries, even by a thousand years or two. At some point in every market, though, the salesperson’s going to run into a problem. It’s the “difference problem.” A souk gets too busy. Bazaars become over-crowded. Markets change, sometimes faster than you imagine (think iPhone). Buyers have more and more on their minds.
These buyers can no longer take the time, maybe haven’t got the time, to differentiation among sellers. We marketers tend to think this is a new challenge but it’s not. Every time another brass coffee pot seller sets up a booth next to ours – or a new refinery starts producing ethylene and tries selling it to our customers – we face the challenge of commoditization…that’s a difference problem.
It affects companies, marketers and salespeople. So on Friday, September 17, the AMAHouston Energy SIG’s presenting its “Savvy Sales Force Enablement” seminar. Have you registered yet?
If you attend, you could come away with some best practices on how to get your sales force excited about what they present to customers – because what they’re saying (marketing messages) is the difference that catches prospects’ attention.
To find out more about the upcoming seminar, I did the classic “5 Questions” thing with one of the Energy SIG’s co-chairs, Brenda Bramhill of Baker Hughes.
1. What are the challenges salespeople in the industry are facing today? Recent statistics are telling, notes Bramhill. “70% of executives say that commoditization is the biggest threat to company growth.” The big challenge is lack of differentiation, compounded by the increasing sophistication of buyers. They have many sources of information and their ‘job,’ in many cases, is to keep prices low. So the market acts to continually detract from the value of sellers’ brands.
Every year, 30% more information floods the desks of decision-makers. Customers are overwhelmed and therefore have far less time to listen to (and be influenced by) sales messages.
“Nevertheless,” Bramhill says, “85% of what customers think about your company is based on the conversations they have with your sales force – they’re building the brand in their own way – but only 25% of salespeople who make a good first call get a second meeting with key decision-makers.”
“90% of what marketing creates isn’t used by the sales people – why? Marketing could do much more to engage the salespeople, who frequently aren’t involved early enough in the positioning and message development processes to get them fully onboard.”
2. How did your SIG committee decide to spotlight this topic? “If you – as a marketer – want to make a contribution to the bottom line, then you, as a marketer, needs to help your sales force succeed.”
3. What’s the best way for marketing to enable sales? “Develop positioning statements based on customers’ needs that help your salespeople buy into why customers will care. Give them tools to compellingly describe your product or service’s unique quality – so they don’t end up sounding like their competitor; that’s invaluable. And, finally, provide a lead generation system that really works.”
4. What’s your own concept of a successful lead generation system? “Marketing often fails to complete the cycle when it comes to sales leads – we’re accountable and the sales force is accountable. So the successful lead generation reinforces the interaction and the mutual accountability of everyone involved.”
5. How about a reading recommendation for colleagues working at the marketing/sales department interface? One of our speakers, Tim Riesterer, has a new book coming out. Join us, we’ll give you all the must-read details.
Thanks to Bramhill and her co-chair, Claudia Escobar of Control Risks, for preparing the seminar. I’ll be there because even though I have been wrestling with product differentiation (branding) and salesforce motivation (profitability) for years, I expect innovation.
BTW, I’m Richard Laurence Baron, AMA volunteer and principal of Signalwrite Marketing. Happy Labor Day. See you around the souk.
Photo: © Baloncici | Dreamstime.com
3 Responses to “Differentiating in the Bazaar: How Marketing Can Help Sales.”
PS: Speakers for this 9/17 event are Tim Riesterer, CMO and SVP – Corporate Visions Inc.; Gordon Gorrie, Marketing Executive – Wood Group, Gas Turbine Services; and Scott Berg, Director, Global Digital Strategy & Ecosystems – Corporate Marketing, Hewlett-Packard Company.
I found it interesting that 90 percent of what marketing creates is not used by the sales people. Seems like their jobs go hand-in-hand.
Thanks for your note, Danielle. Brenda Bramhill can lay out the stats by chapter and verse – and this is just one of the numbers involved in the challenge.
There’s also a long-time and dramatic tension between Marketing (which wants Sales to be accountable full-time for everything) and Sales (who often think of Marketing people as speedbumps). I suppose this imbalance ought to be factored in, too.