Marketing and Sales

June 10, 2012

How often have you seen anybody with the title Marketing and Sales Director? I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in my fifteen-year PR career – it’s invariably Sales first and Marketing second. Why? Because the majority of organizations fundamentally misunderstand the inter-relationship between sales and marketing & PR.

When times are tough, organizations traditionally pour money into sales activities and look to cut back on PR and marketing spend.  The thinking is that by focusing more effort and investment on sales, they increase the chances of closing deals.  The truth is that when things are tough for the sales team, organizations should be investing more in marketing – not less.

• Marketing and PR help you correctly position a product or service within a market, ensuring that people understand why they should choose you over a competitor
• Marketing and PR help you deliver a personal message to a mass audience of prospective customers
• Marketing and PR deliver in-bound sales leads
• The opportunity cost per lead for marketing and PR is a fraction of having a sales representative find it

So, next time you’re thinking about cutting marketing and PR spend ask yourself one question.  What would you rather have the sales reps doing: chasing leads or closing deals? You’ll also find that the chances of closing a deal resulting from a well crafted marketing and PR campaign are significantly higher than from speculative outbound sales calls.

Category: Marketing Communications, Public Relations, Strategic Marketing, THINK DIFFERENTLY
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