When Marketing Becomes Selling
I had an interesting conversation with someone yesterday, and it got me thinking. You see, an acquaintance of mine quit from his old job and wanted to get a new one. Naturally, he was asking around.
Of course, I had to ask him what type of jobs he preferred. As a trained Project Management professional, he naturally preferred program or project work. When I asked him how he felt about a business development role, his answer was quick and predictable.
“I don’t do sales. I have done some marketing work before and it was quite ok.”
So, marketing is not sales, and sales is not nice, marketing is acceptable. Good.
But if you looked around you today, there are a lot of jobs with the title “Marketing Something” and a lot of what they are expected to do are sales. Phony.
So, marketing – what exactly constitutes marketing? Let’s try to make a list
- Brochures
- Road Shows
- Putting up Ads (print, outdoor, TV, online…)
- Talking to Ad Agencies
- Trade Show participation
- Promotions and Events
- Direct Mail
So, for the sake of argument, let’s assume the above list is correct. Now, we need to ask ourselves, what is the purpose of all those activities? Well, let’s make another list, this time, about what marketing is all about:
- Brand building
- Awareness
- Customer Relationship (loyalty, repeat sales…)
- Improve sales
Again, let us assume this is correct for now. So, all the marketing folks are happy. You see, these are the things that marketing does.
Recently, there has been a trend towards accountability. What with the economy and the other disturbances, every penny saved is a penny earned. More and more attention is now being paid to the Return on Investment of Marketing Dollars.
Now, management wants to measure the results of marketing in a more tangible way. For years, decades, marketers have been using brand awareness surveys, top of mind brand recall, customer loyalty index and so on to justify their spendings. But with the crunch on businesses, that has somehow become insufficient.
As most bosses will tell you, all the statistics are fine; but when it comes time to pay the salaries, a 20% increase in brand awareness with no money in the bank means absolutely nothing.
Marketing today needs to produce real, tangible results. Tangible usually refers to the area between the thumb and the forefinger. Most traditional, old school marketers clinging to their old ways disagree. Bringing in the cash is sales. Marketing paves the way. How can marketing be held responsible for poor sales?
Let’s examine the list of things marketing do once again:
- Brochures
- Road Shows
- Putting up Ads (print, outdoor, TV, online…)
- Talking to Ad Agencies
- Trade Show participation
- Promotions and Events
- Direct Mail
Why give a brochure to someone if you don’t expect them to buy? Why waste time and resources at a Road Show if no sales are expected? Why advertise if you have nothing to sell? Why go to huge Trade Shows if you do not expect huge orders? Why run promotions and events if you expect no one to buy your products or services? Why waste the stamp money if you don’t expect a cheque in the mail?
Say what you like, when marketing becomes selling, it is an indication of two possibilities:
a) lousy marketing (your message must be pretty crude)
b) really effective marketing
What say you?
