My mom always had a childlike sense of humor and throughout my childhood and into my adult years she made sure she got to tell her favorite riddle as often as possible. It starts "Why do cows wear bells?" The answer is "Because their horns don't work."
As a sales trainer, I spend a lot of time talking to businesses about their sources of revenue. I often talk to them about the whole cost of sales numbers, not just the training budget. And more often than not, part of that cost is marketing. Before we go any further, I want you to know I like marketing. I have done marketing for a living, and I use marketing to grow my revenue and you should, too.
But as I look at their Cost of Sales, it often reminds me of my mom's riddle. I ask "Why do you spend this money on marketing?" And the single most common answer is "Because our sales team doesn't work."
Following this statement, I listen to business owners talk about how their sales teams are either unable or unwilling to proactively contact the prospects that the business owner had identified as ideal for their business. There are plenty of good reasons to market. Almost any marketing expense can be justified if it is framed correctly. However, the answer to "Why do you market like that?" should never be "because our sales team doesn't work."
If your current sales team has either a technical or a conceptual problem proactively reaching out and finding the prospects you have identified as ideal for your business, the problem you have cannot simply be cured by spending more money on marketing.
Over the years, I have helped my clients increase both their top-line revenue and their bottom-line profit by doing three things. The first step is to select prospecting targets intelligently. As a second step, salespersons should begin conversations relevant to prospects' pains and salespersons' solutions. The last step is to quickly disqualify bad prospects.
Are you tired of spending money to make up for a lack of sales prospecting? We should talk. Contact Matt Nettleton, Sandler Training, DTB at matt.nettleton@sandler.com or 317-695-8549
