Sales AND Marketing

Let be start by telling you that I am knackered. My son Felix has taken to demanding his breakfast at just before 6am. I'd like to say "requesting" as opposed to "demanding", but seeing as how there is no practical way to deny him what he wants, he knows he has the upper hand. I supposed I should be proud of his learning how to successfully negotiate at 11 months - he tells me what he wants, I try to outline a suitable compromise, he cries, he gets what he wants. It's not a tactic I'm willing to try in the office, but you do have to wonder what would happen if I did.

Anyway, despite my desperately wanting to curl up in front of the sofa with a warm wife, it's time for this week's blog. The title is Sales AND Marketing, and it's the AND part that's really starting to bug me.

You see there are lots of companies out there that consider these two functions to be separate things - one team to look after marketing, and the other to look after sales. Personally, I think that these companies are missing the bigger picture.

Think about it. What exactly is Marketing anyway? I've always thought of it as getting your brand in front of both existing and potential new customers. I'm sure some nerd with a degree in marketing would be more than happy to write me an essay telling me how wrong I am but I'll spare him the trouble - I won't read it, so don't bother.

OK, so what exactly do Sales people do all day when they're not watching Pandas sneezing on You Tube? They get their company's products and services in front of as many existing and potential new customers as possible.

See the link? Aside from a few operational differences, Sales and Marketing do the same job. They have the same goal and perhaps most importantly, they should be sharing the same tools in order to reach that goal.

So do your Sales Team and your Marketing Team meet regularly to discuss strategy? Are your Sales people invited to submit campaign suggestions or advertising ideas?

Today I met with a Marketing Manager who advised me that his top Sales people will regularly visit their best clients and might bring them a bottle of champagne that they pay for themselves. I asked him how his Sales people felt about that and he didn't know. As a Salesman myself I can tell you how I'd feel about it - annoyed. Why am I financing the marketing operation of my company? If we are leaving gifts with our clients, should the company not be paying for that?

To make matters worse, just how powerful is a bottle of champagne anyway? You give it, they take it home, whack it in the fridge and drunk it at some random point in the future, and you can bet that they won't be toasting your good health when they do. So that's at least £30 of your own money with next to no return on your investment.

Just think how much more effective it would have been to have given them something that they could have used in their day to day working environment. They would feel a debt of gratitude to you every time that they used it, and that might be every single day. I hardly think Moet can boast the same claims!

So stop separating your Sales and Marketing - they're doing the same job, and if you put the right tools in place early enough, you'll see both departments becoming profit centres, and isn't that what you wanted all along?

Next week we'll be exhibiting at International Confex at Earls Court. You'll find us on Stand G100 and there are free gifts on offer to anyone who prints out this invitation and brings it along.

We hope to see you there and have a good week in business.