Why business stagnates? (Article 5)
Do you differentiate between Sales and Marketing?
Many B2B companies do not differentiate between Sales & Marketing. While marketing involves research, branding, publicity, advertising, customer relations, Sales is more about persuading the customer to buy the goods or services & ends when the money is received for the deal.
Customer need is the focus around which marketing is built.
As per Peter Drucker purpose of a business is ‘To create & keep a Customer’
Sales is perhaps one subset of marketing.
Many business owners expect their sales guys to also handle marketing! Certainly not wise!!
If you hire a marketing professional & focus on customer centric things, you will be on the right track. Marketing guys cannot handle sales pressures. They need time & ‘space’ to work on their own.
What would be typical marketing actions for a small or midsize industry?
There are many. All the actions can build your brand in a very positive manner.
1) Develop a good website, which is responsive, SEO friendly, neat & clean.
2) Start communications with the customers — both digital & physical.
3) Have a brand strategy in place. Get a brand manual done, which will guide every member of your organization to follow the brand guidelines.
4) Be present on Social Media — encourage your employees, friends, associates to read, like, follow the posts.
5) Even your social media platforms should be advertised through your communications
6) Mass emailing & physical mailing is also essential
7) Do you have good case studies, application notes? Have you done something better than others or special for the customer in the past? Let it come out & reach the customers…
8) Do you have marketing kit developed? Are your sales guys using it effectively?
9) What are the ways to reach your customers — Exhibitions, User meets, Industry forums, Industry magazines… find out & be present there
10) Are you using any software to monitor your marketing activities? After all, you need to capture the effect of marketing in generating enquirers.
Getting ready:
Not many businesses are ready for marketing, although they think they are doing marketing. They are doing sales. Marketing calls for a different mindset. It calls for change in work culture. It calls for freedom for creativity. It calls embracing new things. It calls for more interactions with customers. It calls for gauging user experience… and finally it’s not just the top management, but your lower end staff also needs exposure to marketing.
It always makes sense to get a good consultant to bring this change, who will work more like a business advisor & look at your business from a bird’s eye to give you rational approach towards your business process.
© Nitin Kirloskar
