The job of Marketing is to generate awareness and enquiries. The Sales team closes the deals . Those two teams really need to talk!
Another brilliant idea
There are so many ways to generate interest and enquiries and marketers are never short of ways to spend the marketing budget. For example, Facebook’s ad formats are many, varied and offer lots of ways to engage with a target market.
But just because they generate a lot of leads—‘Yay!’ says Marketing—it doesn’t mean these leads are any good—‘Waste of time!’—says Sales. The only way a marketer truly knows what works—which leads are the good leads—is by talking to the sales team.
Lots of enquiries, job done
When I ran my small marketing agency BuzzedUp I was contracted with a challenger brand (ranking second in market share in the sector). It was a brilliant account to work on because the owner trusted me. When I got it right he thanked and publicly praised me! When I got it wrong he let me have it but behind closed doors. A good man and manager.
I was given a lot of freedom to develop a marketing plan and tactics. Typically I would make recommendations, then test competing lead-generation methods, review and adapt. So when a latest campaign prompted hundreds of direct enquiries via Facebook Messenger, I was delighted.
They answered the call-to-action
Each day the inbox filled up with people responding to the Messenger button call-to-action on our ad. But I was getting nervous because there was no noticeable revenue impact from the campaign.
Something wasn't right. These leads were from named individuals expressing a direct interest in a product. They should have been hot prospects, yet they didn't convert. There was a mismatch in expectation between prospect and product. At a review meeting I had been hoping for a pat on the back from the Sales Director; but now he was chewing my ears off.
The sales team grumbles got louder by the hour. Dealing with these poor enquiries was taking up a lot of their time. I cancelled the ads within 48 hours and diverted the budget to campaigns I knew would work.
A learning culture—but only if you talk
You live and learn. But only by talking. We were a small agency, but one with a learning culture, so we would try and review and improve wherever possible. Without good and open lines of communication with the client’s in-house sales team this would be impossible.
Reviewing the marketing for your business?
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