In the best-organized businesses, sales and marketing are operational components that feed off of each other to fuel growth and innovation. Sales teams gather intelligence from prospects who feed that back into the marketing side to develop better products and messaging that makes the sales cycle easier for all.
It sounds natural and easy, and we expect that Wizard of Ads partner Ryan Chute could give a master class on the ways sales and marketing impact a business. At a recent confab of WoA partners here in Austin, Chute talked with One Man Brnd’s Ray Seggern about the six factors he sees as crucial to building a an effective selling system. Those factors: employee compensation and recruitment, clear sales processes, creating alignment with the sales and marketing message, and building leadership and culture to hold everything together.
“If you have a bad rep as a sector it’s a chance to build integrity and find ways to be distinctly better,” he said. “Honestly matters. Help people win, have an attitude of gratitude and be grateful with the opportunity you have.”
Also joining the show was Illinois-based Wizard of Ads guru Johnny Molson, who was on hand to present findings from a 30-year study of advertising campaigns. His big takeaway? That small businesses see the best success when their marketing is 60 percent based on brand building and 40 percent on short-term sales activation.
“If you sell mattresses, 8 percent of the market needs mattress at that specific time, but 99 percent will need one in the long term,” he said. With that in mind, businesses need to spend the time building a distinct and preferred brand for potential customers, so they’ll be even more likely to pick up the phone or pay a visit unprompted when they need what you’re selling.
“Do you have consistent brand voice? Do things match at all touch points? It all works so much better when you’re consistent in all media.”