Business Development

Marketing is not Selling

A steering wheel and gas pedal are both necessary to operate a car but have different functions. The same can be said for marketing and sales. To operate a machine various pieces and parts are necessary; a machine will run smoothly if it has the proper maintenance and parts operating it. Similarly, the same is true with marketing and sales.

What is Marketing?

Marketing focuses on creating brand awareness and building relationships through strategies and communications. To effectively market, research and data must be utilized to create a communication plan to promote a product or company. Marketing focuses on a broad approach, creates awareness and advertises. While these efforts cannot ensure sales, they can help build brand identity and awareness. Marketing helps cultivate relationships between potential customers and your brand. When thinking of what determines marketing, think about the game plan. This game plan will inspire targeted demographics to think, feel and react. Marketing is not selling. Marketing is not a one-size-fits-all approach; it requires a specifically formatted communication plan.

What is Sales?

Sales focus on closing deals and generating revenue through transactions with customers. Sales is a process that helps prospective customers. By listening to customers, the sales team uncover their wants and needs and can help determine how best to meet them. Sales fulfills the demand.

There are distinct activities associated with sales that allow it to be different than marketing. Sales activities are exclusive to the sales process and are essential in a thriving business. There are many examples of sales activities such as negotiations, product training, and even prototyping. These activities aid the sales process and typically result in a positive experience for both buyer and seller.

Effective Use

A car can’t drive without both a steering wheel and a gas pedal. This analogy is the same for marketing and sales. While marketing and sales are both aspects of the business, using only one will not propel a business further. Just because a person has a steering wheel does not mean the car will move. Successful companies use marketing to ensure potential clients know about their business.

In essence, the marketing team paves the road for the sales team.

Like a well-oiled machine, parts that work well together contribute to the overall machine working smoothly and productively. Likewise, sales and marketing must work together. Without collaboration, misalignment ensues—leading to wasted resources and missed opportunities.

If your company lacks marketing, Web Savvy can help. We’ll create targeted messaging that will help your sales team drive home more sales.

It’s not uncommon for business owners to lose sleep at night, especially those who run manufacturing companies. They’re juggling a hundred balls at once, and the omnipresent fear that they’ll inadvertently drop one can result in a lot of late-night anxiety.

Some business owners push business development to the back burner while they address everything else they’re managing, like supply chain backlogs, staffing shortages, equipment failures, etc. This is especially true for smaller manufacturers with limited resources, and it’s a problem they can’t afford to ignore.

A manufacturer in Trumbull, CT made this mistake early on in her business. To respect her privacy, we’ll call her “Kim.” Kim’s outgoing personality helped her build a successful business from the ground up, and with just a few steady clients she quickly had more work than she could handle. She ramped up production, which meant hiring new people.

While she struggled to meet demand, she turned her attention away from business development. However, when her biggest client suffered an unexpected financial setback and abruptly stopped placing orders, Kim’s business collapsed. Her remaining customers couldn’t sustain the company and she had no prospects in her pipeline. She had to drastically downsize her warehouse and lay off most of her employees. She eventually rehired them, but it took several years to fully rebuild the company. Today she has hundreds of customers because she routinely focuses on business development.

Like most manufacturers, Kim built her business on Word-of-Mouth Marketing (WoMM). This is one of her most powerful tools and she continues to use it to her advantage. According to the fact checking website Review 42, WoMM is the most trusted form of marketing, and it influences 99% of all B2B purchases. However, Kim also knows that WoMM is not the only tool she needs to incorporate into her business development plan.

What tools does your business development plan include? Are you working with your marketing team regularly to engage with your customers on social media? Are you keeping your business at the top of your customers’ minds with newsletters, blogs, and periodic emails?

If you don’t have a strong business development plan, it might be time for a Needs Assessment. The Connecticut Manufacturers Resource Group (CTmrg.com), a subdivision of Web Savvy Marketers, has a long history of conducting Needs Assessments and can ensure your business development plan includes all the marketing strategies necessary for growing your business.

Sales and Marketing: Collaboration is Key to Success – Part One

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