Turn Sales Funnels into Megaphones

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  1

  tinawinslow

  08/29/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Turn Sales Funnels into Megaphones

  Interesting take and for the most part, I totally agree with what you are saying. It's a trend I see in my industry quite a bit and why we are in essence switching our service offerings as a web development company.
  
  That being said, I don't think that Marketing will disappear, rather I think they will move toward more interactive marketing. For instance, brochures available online and with good key words would help search engines find your company better; sales letters in the form of an e-mail or newsletter that add value might reach more with less cost; and advertising copy that is through Pay-Per-Click ads or laden with good key topics for search or social networking sites would drive potential customers to you.
  
  Just my thinking.
  
  Tina Winslow

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine

  08/30/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Turn Sales Funnels into Megaphones

  QUOTE: I don't think that Marketing will disappear, rather I think they will move toward more interactive marketing.
  
  You're probably right about that. The job will change. With any luck, it will become measurable. However, interactive marketing requires a smaller budget... or ought to.

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  BrentBo9

  09/02/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Turn Sales Funnels into Megaphones

  I find it interesting that the offer is willing to concede that sales must adapt, but doesn't think that Marketing will. There is no doubt that the entire sales process is changing. Today's customers have access to more information on a product or service than ever before. The challenge to capture customers requires a continual evolution of both the sales and marketing functions. If I were responsding to Seth's take - I would focus my marketing on building and developing our reputation - if that is what is going to impact customer decisions. You could argue that this approach would negate the need for experienced salespeople with an existing database. The point is, sales or marketing - evolve or die!
  
  BB

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  Elaine Leonetti

  09/02/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Turn Sales Funnels into Megaphones

  As marketing professionals we recognize the medium for delivering our brand message is changing. Word of Mouth from current clients will help accelerate the sales process. We should gain new business with existing clients as well as add new clients because of the positive stories. But, a word of caution here. Don't rely exclusively on the megaphone or any other singularly focused lead generation tool. Not all people will buy simply because of a good story - no matter who is sharing. No doubt it will help. But, be creative and leverage various tools that will lead to new business.
  Elaine Leonetti
  Six Degrees

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  denis.lorinet@...

  09/03/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Turn Sales Funnels into Megaphones

  I fully agree with your two points for one single reason : if you want to sell more, what counts the most in sales and marketing is always the "buying funnel" of your customer. Both need to adress it, but from a different angle and at a different point in time. Once marketing and sales tasks are confused, which is the case when marketing is in charge of lead generation, inefficiency is there.
  
  In other words, "sales funnel" is a management tool for sales people to make sound decisions at the right time. It's not a tool or a system which eases the sales person interaction with his/her prospect.
  
  So what about marketing ?
  More brain, more willingness to take risks at the CEO level combined with simultaneous innovation in marketing allows less spending in communication and sales force cost for much better results. Just think of the iphone recent launch. Which existing phone manufacturer wouldn't be capable of making it ?From the initial thinking to the sales support for introduction, innovation in marketing was a continuum : product ergonomy, the alliances signed with major phone operators and their share revenue scheme with Apple, ... corporate branding was not alone while PR made Advertising and direct mailing budgets useless.
  
  Now, regarding the future role of marketing and sales,
  - who said that personal relationship history of the sales person with a previous customers or his/her personal megaphone capabilities were keys in achieving his/her last quarter quota ?
  - who said that marketing should change ?
  
  Denis Lorinet
  Akivia Developpement

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine

  09/03/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Turn Sales Funnels into Megaphones

  QUOTE: Once marketing and sales tasks are confused, which is the case when marketing is in charge of lead generation, inefficiency is there.
  
  
  Sorry, but you could not be more wrong.
  
  
  Marketing groups that don't focus 100 percent on lead generation are a complete waste of time. If they can't generate leads because they lack sales savvy and customer knowledge, then they should all be fired. See:
  
  
  
  http://blogs.bnet.com/salesmachine/?p=50
  
  
  http://blogs.bnet.com/salesmachine/?p=51
  
  
  
  Any marketing activity that can't be measured in terms of an increase in revenue or a decrease in sales cost should be shut down immediately and the guilty personnel escorted from the premises.

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  Soapbox Marketing

  09/03/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Turn Sales Funnels into Megaphones

  High paid drone? Ouch - that stung. (pun intended). I'd be glad to focus 100% on lead generation, if it wasn't for those sales people asking me for a brochure, a PowerPoint presentation or white paper. I worked in a company where I begged the CEO to let me help his sales team with lead generation (rather than firing the latest crew every 6 months for lack of er... sales)but he couldn't see the value. Instead, I was asked to write press releases and plan company contests.
  
  As for all marketing activity being measured in terms of revenue, I agree only to an extent. You can't measure the revenue that results from branding,but if we were all escorted to the door there would be lots of text-only websites out there, written by sales people.
  
  The most successful marketing programs that I have been a part of were created and executed as a joint effort between marketing AND sales. You can't have one without the other.

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  Marketing VP

  09/03/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Turn Sales Funnels into Megaphones

  "Marketing groups that don't focus 100 percent on lead generation are a complete waste of time. If they can't generate leads because they lack sales savvy and customer knowledge, then they should all be fired."
  
  As usual, utter drivel from the narrow-minded, hard-core 'My sales target is the most important thing in the universe' school of sales. In Mr James' world, charities and not for profit organisations must not exist. He appears to value nothing in the organisational model which does not impact on his own personal targets and this is fairly typical.
  
  I thought door-knockers like this were a thing of the past and I'm glad I'll never meet Mr James as the sales stereotype portayed makes me want to wash my hands...

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  denis.lorinet@...

  09/03/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Turn Sales Funnels into Megaphones

  Quote : "Any marketing activity that can't be measured in terms of an increase in revenue or a decrease in sales cost should be shut down immediately and the guilty personnel escorted from the premises".
  
  Then where do you desagree with me ? : "simultaneous innovation in marketing allows less spending in communication and sales force cost for much better results" ?
  
  In "Lateral Thinking, new techniques for finding breakthrough ideas", Philip Kotler says that 90% of marketing management effort and spending goes in the wrong direction.
  
  Unfortunately, from the company I know, I should say that I agree.
  
  When marketing innovates truly, the whole customer interaction with the company sales force can be reshaped. Sales and margin grow up significantly.
  
  On the marketing Mix level PR replaces costly spending such as Ad and Direct Marketing and e-mail campaigns. Which has two effects :
  - In the field, fresh salespeople are rapidly as efficient as seniors are to get orders (providing they have a "good" sales manager)
  - Marketing people in charge of operational tasks such as direct lead generation are replaced by experienced business developpers. They are real project managers who federate a team made of lead cutomers, R&D,sales,future strategic partners... around their innovative project. On a long term basis, they can be paid much more. And the company needs less people in the marketing department... every body in the company can be a source of marketing innovation.
  
  To create a huge level of sales leads, marketing has to be a corporate culture, not a task assigned to such or such group. For few companies, like Apple or Toyota, and other smaller concerns I work with in BtoB, it works !
  
  Denis Lorinet
  Akivia Developpement

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine

  09/03/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Turn Sales Funnels into Megaphones

  QUOTE: In Mr James' world, charities and not for profit organisations must not exist.
  
  Oh, they exist in my world. And if they've got marketing groups that aren't bringing in sales leads (i.e. potential donors), the marketing people should still be fired.
  
  
  Look, it isn't about an individual's sales goals; it's about what marketing is supposed to do. From the tone of many of these remarks, a fair number of marketing folk think that they're supposed to be forming strategies, building brand awareness, and all sort of unmeasurable activities. Wrong. Marketing has to contribute something of value and NOTHING is of value (in a business sense) if it can't be measured. The only way that you can measure marketing is by a reduction in the cost of sales. Therefore, if marketing can't do that (either by lead generation or providing something that shortens the sales cycle) they're worse than useless.

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  ChristopherKfoster

  09/04/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Turn Sales Funnels into Megaphones

  All businesses will be forced to operate in a multi-channel environment, where online presence, direct e-mail/mail, social networking, and other "traditional" methods generate very specific metrics: unique visits, leads (of varying quality), orders, etc. One of Marketing's role is to keep costs down, set up the sales force for successful closing, and help manage overall operating profit by developing and marketing the products and experience they know customers want. Direct Mail will only be one cost/revenue piece of the Sales & Marketing dashboard. Which Channel will have claim to the lead or sale? All may have some claim. The importance is the overall spend versus the overall return. And "what cannot be measured cannot be improved."

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine

  09/05/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Turn Sales Funnels into Megaphones

  QUOTE: Marketing's role is to keep costs down, set up the sales force for successful closing, and help manage overall operating profit by developing and marketing the products and experience they know customers want.
  
  
  Your first two points are exactly on target. I maintain that marketing personnel can't do either of those two tasks if they don't have some sales experience.
  
  You're wrong about the third point, though, particularly when it comes to products. That's the job of engineering. While engineers can and do go down ratholes and espouse product religions, in general they know far more about what customers want and need -- and what's possible to build -- than the marketing folk.
  
  That being said, I think most marketing personnel think their job is to strategize, build brand equity, and "drive" sales, all of which are euphemisms for "getting paid to spout BS."

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  ChristopherKfoster

  09/05/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Turn Sales Funnels into Megaphones

  I totally disagree about engineering being the team that owns the responsibility of knowing the customer's want and needs. In every business environment I've seen, the engineers understand what's possible, but look for guidance as to what customers are saying - from Sales & Customer service (who interact daily with customers), and marketing (who is also responsible for understanding the customer, and translating those needs into tight requirements documents the engineers use to build). It's a partnership between all the disciplines. But this is a tangent away from the topic...

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine

  09/08/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Turn Sales Funnels into Megaphones

  QUOTE: the engineers understand what's possible, but look for guidance as to what customers are saying
  
  No, they don't. Most engineers think marketers are idiots. Engineers pretend to listen to marketing folk because 1) they can't get their projects funded if they don't make nice, and 2) a fair percentage of marketers are attractive females, which are in relatively short supply in the engineering group.
  
  
  I suspect that some folk will find this last bit of information offensive, but I come from the engineering culture and I know exactly what I'm talking about.
  
  
  
  As for needing guidance about "what customers are saying," where have you been for the past five years? Never heard of Web 2.0? Even before social networking, blogs, and all that jive, engineers had plenty of contacts in customer land. Today, it's a simple matter of getting onto a website and reading customer comments. There's no need for a middleman, which is one reason that much of what passes for B2B marketing is wasted effort.
  
  
  
  The only job that B2B marketing should have is lead generation and they should be goaled and compensated on their ability to reduce the cost of sale. Any other job or goal for B2B marketing is throwing money down the toilet.