Big Marketing Mistake
Business after business I have visited with lately all seem to be making a big mistake, that is, expecting sales people to be marketers.
I happen to like the saying: Marketing Generates Prospects, Sales Turns Prospects Into Cash.
Hiring sales people, telling them what you can do and saying now bring us business just seems foolish. Most sales people need to be aimed, given specific targets and they really Thrive if some marketing actions have been taking to generate qualified leads, or at least partially qualified leads.
Expecting sales people to be able to explain your value proposition with no instruction or guidance could end up damaging your business.
Most sales people make money when they close a sale, doing marketing communication takes away from this process.
In my experience it is rare the great sales person who can also do effective marketing.
What do you think?
1 Comment
Other Links to this Post
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
By Sanjay Kumar, December 5, 2006 @ 1:21 am
Fantastic point. Sales and marketing are really two different disciplines and require vastly different skill sets. As you mention, marketing is all about generating leads, and clearly sales is about converting qualified leads into sales (ie. “closing the sale”). I find that most small businesses cannot afford full-time marketers and don’t value them as much as they do sales people.
http://www.SimplifyThis.com