Spring 2006: by Brent Banda

Linking Marketing and the Sales Force

Most business owners can easily improve the performance of their sales force by ensuring salespeople work toward the company's broader goals. This can be more complex than it sounds.

Theoretically, marketing and sales should be a natural fit. Marketing communicates the value you offer to customers. The sales force then organizes salespeople to provide any necessary personal contact and helps facilitate a sale.

Reality is much different. Examine any company and you'll see salespeople without a clear understanding of the value their employer is trying to offer. You'll also see business owners developing complex marketing strategies that have no chance of being implemented because they lack buy-in from front line staff.

Your salespeople have access to remarkable information. They interact with your competition and customers on a daily basis.

Take a close look at how your sales force interacts with your overall marketing effort. Consider how the following concepts would apply to your company.

Explain the Big Picture
Salespeople make front line decisions every day. They represent your company to the customer and choose which points to discuss and which points to avoid. Ultimately they craft the reputation your company has in the industry.

Understanding the company's broader objectives allows salespeople to focus effort on products and customers crucial to the company's long-term future. Imagine your salesperson ignoring your new product line because it distracts from traditional technology that is easier to sell. This may be a problem if your company must establish a foothold in the market with the new technology. That salesperson must understand how today's sale fits with the long-term vision.

Listen To Your Salespeople
Your salespeople have access to remarkable information. They interact with your competition and customers on a daily basis. This information along with the salesperson's opinion can be valuable in crafting marketing decisions such as setting prices and developing your company's brand image.

Does your company have a method of collecting industry information? A properly managed sales force will reward salespeople for digging up valuable facts.

Structure Your Sales Force Properly
Sales force management involves decisions such as territory design and compensation format. Design the sales force to meet marketing goals, and craft your marketing strategy with the sales force in mind.

Pricing is a common example of how sales and marketing can be tied together. When a marketing department launches a product, margins can be set with accommodation for higher sales force commissions or bonuses.

Higher sales force commissions can have a greater impact on sales volume than discounting the consumer selling price.

Support Your Sales Force
Salespeople love to sell, not teach. Industries that require significant customer education often benefit from a marketing program that assumes part of this responsibility. For example, seminars can educate clients in a social and credible environment while allowing salespeople to use their client visits more productively.

Marketing is often too focused on simply building awareness and ultimately is far removed from the sales effort. Instead, use your marketing effort to replace steps in the sales process that are a poor use of your salesperson's time. Many industries have successfully replaced cold calling with sophisticated direct mail campaigns that can generate qualified leads from a large numbers of prospects.

Agree on What Makes You Unique
Business owners often choose to focus on a niche market. Naturally, they focus on offering something unique that is important to those customers. Remarkably, salespeople and marketing staff often disagree on what is important and will promote entirely different benefits. This confuses the customer and can be detrimental to the sale.

Do your salespeople ignore their brochures and other support material? Perhaps marketing decisions were made without proper understanding of the customer. Perhaps salespeople are too focused on what has worked in the past or do not properly understand the unique benefits of the product. Whatever the problem, marketing and sales are most effective when they base their decisions on the same information and work together to close a sale.

The sales process is often expensive, but a well-run sales force can be the most valuable asset in your marketing toolkit. Any department that operates in isolation rarely makes profitable decisions on a consistent basis, and your sales force is no different. Tie the sales force closely to the marketing effort and you'll benefit from satisfied customers and a more profitable business.

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