I talk to a lot of agency owners and I ask them the same question: how do you plan to grow your firm? The answers I almost always get are these:
• “Do a better job of marketing”
• “Hire a marketing director”
• “Win more new business presentations”
• “Get more referrals”
• “Make the agency an account”
Now these answers aren’t totally wrong – they are just not the right one.
What agency owners and CEOs should be saying is. “We have to do a better job of sales.”
After all isn’t business development all about selling and winning?
So why don’t I get the right answer? I think it is because many people are confused about the difference between sales and marketing. So here are my definitions:
Marketing: The process of making a “universe” of potential business prospects know more about your firm and how you think
Sales: The process of persuading a potential customer to buy your services
Now where would you put the emphasis?
From now on divide your sales and marketing “time pie” differently – 75% of your time on sales and 25% of your time on marketing.
Making the time commitment is only the very first step of the sales challenge. I’ll be addressing other challenges and offering potential solutions in future postings.
Showing posts with label sales strategy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sales strategy. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Agency Owners: Avoid This Mistake!
New business is the lifeblood of any public relations or marketing communications firm. Finding prospects and converting them into new clients is normally the #1 need for most firms. Today’s economic uncertainties make this an even more pressing need.
However, ask most owners how they plan grow and win new clients and they answer, “By doing a better job of marketing.”
What they should say is “By doing a better job of selling.”
As both a former agency leader and current adviser to PR and marketing firms, I believe that most agency leaders confuse sales and marketing and as a result lack a real sales strategy to win business. And, a sales strategy is not just a list of potential new business opportunities,a training program to make your people better presenters, or more impacful PowerPoints.
Here‘s what I mean. For many (perhaps most) agency owners, one of their biggest gripes is the lack of an effective marketing program to make that proverbial phone ring off the hook, generate more referrals and ideally stimulate prospects to simply award them the business.
Do the words “positioning”; “messaging”; new website; “USP”; recognition; reputation; etc. ring a bell? These are the words agency owners often use when either trying to fix their marketing effort or launch a new one.
The reasoning is simple: the better known (and known for the right reasons) the more likely we are to attract potential clients. Once they get to us we can “sell” them. And, they are not wrong – just a little misguided that this is the primary solution to their growth issues.
I believe that the real solution to growth lies with the right kind of sales strategy supported by a complimentary marketing program – not the other way around. If you know to whom you are selling, what they have bought in the past or could be buying now, and what you can offer them that competition cannot, then you have the basis for a strategic sales development program.
Do you have a sales strategy or just simply a marketing strategy? Or, perhaps neither.
However, ask most owners how they plan grow and win new clients and they answer, “By doing a better job of marketing.”
What they should say is “By doing a better job of selling.”
As both a former agency leader and current adviser to PR and marketing firms, I believe that most agency leaders confuse sales and marketing and as a result lack a real sales strategy to win business. And, a sales strategy is not just a list of potential new business opportunities,a training program to make your people better presenters, or more impacful PowerPoints.
Here‘s what I mean. For many (perhaps most) agency owners, one of their biggest gripes is the lack of an effective marketing program to make that proverbial phone ring off the hook, generate more referrals and ideally stimulate prospects to simply award them the business.
Do the words “positioning”; “messaging”; new website; “USP”; recognition; reputation; etc. ring a bell? These are the words agency owners often use when either trying to fix their marketing effort or launch a new one.
The reasoning is simple: the better known (and known for the right reasons) the more likely we are to attract potential clients. Once they get to us we can “sell” them. And, they are not wrong – just a little misguided that this is the primary solution to their growth issues.
I believe that the real solution to growth lies with the right kind of sales strategy supported by a complimentary marketing program – not the other way around. If you know to whom you are selling, what they have bought in the past or could be buying now, and what you can offer them that competition cannot, then you have the basis for a strategic sales development program.
Do you have a sales strategy or just simply a marketing strategy? Or, perhaps neither.
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