“Do you want to improve your Sales Performance?
The solution is not to ask your salespeople to run faster.
The solution is to implement Better Marketing.
This means enhancing branding, marketing and communication for greater sales efficiency and effectiveness.
The goal is to free up time for your salespeople so they can focus on solving customer problems and closing more profitable deals, rather than running around making cold calls.
In other words, it’s about making your organization more marketing oriented.
My role is to review key dimensions that impact sales performance within your organization. This means identifying potential for improvement in your current marketing and sales processes. Actions are then to be implemented by your team, with or without additional external support.”
Peter Tomczak
Branding and Marketing Developer for the Manufacturing Industry
Why am I talking about Better Marketing?
Sales targets that include customer visits, volume and margin requirements, plus perhaps cross-selling targets are common in industrial sales. These targets are often demanding, and, as part of the annual budgeting process, they tend to increase the pressure on the sales organization, as sales budgets are almost always raised. There’s nothing wrong with that – but are you doing enough to help your sales team become more efficient and close more deals?
Before a buyer is truly ready to discuss a potential deal, they need to be familiar with and trust your company’s brand and have an interest in your offering. Studies, including from the US, show that industrial buyers have completed nearly 70% of the buying journey before they are ready to meet with a salesperson. In other words, there’s a significant opportunity to do solid groundwork through effective marketing, so that when the meeting happens, it’s productive.
To improve sales results and increase the efficiency of the sales process consistent marketing is needed, including brand-building, a clear value proposition and offering, as well as ongoing marketing communications.
”Yes, of course, what’s new with that”, you probably think.
However, do you really utilize the full strength in your brand?
Do you have a clear offering with a well defined and shared go-to-market strategy, process, and planning ?
Are you running communication programs that support your salespeople by generating more leads who get in touch? Is the sales team then well equipped and able to focus on closing deals faster at better margins?
Better Marketing is the solution.
Strengthen your Marketing1)
– for greater Sales Productivity2) and Revenues
It’s not uncommon for B2B companies to view marketing as a kind of complement to sales. In my experience, this is not a winning approach. Marketing is much more than a trade show and a few LinkedIn posts. As indicated earlier, it’s about product mix, segmentation, communication, sales enablement, etc. And, it is important that marketing and sales are integrated.
I will help make your marketing more powerful by developing roles, ways of working, and the organization. The goal is to lay the foundation for a more marketing oriented3) way of working.
This is my proven approach in three steps:
- I conduct a Marketing Review covering five dimensions:
Branding: Is the Brand Platform defined and clear? Is it based on the business strategy? Are dimensions such as vision, mission, business idea, goals and strategies defined in the business strategy? Are dimensions such as brand promise, brand values, personality, and visual identity covered in the platform?Internal Anchoring: Does the Workforce know the strategy and brand? Do they “Live the Brand”?
Product Management: How is product management organized? Is the product strategy with market analysis and segmentation clear? Is the active product portfolio well defined, with features, advantages, and benefits in place? Mar Comms initiatives? Launches?
Marketing and Sales Infrastructure: Current systems, tools, roles and responsibilities?
Marketing Communications and Sales: Are target groups, personas and directions defined? Current programs, inbound/outbound, PR, Sales Plan? - Based on the outcome, I propose development initiatives, which are discussed with your Team and formalized in an Action Plan.
- Your Team implements projects defined in the Plan. May be with further upport from Intemarco or our Partners.
”We can do all this on our own”
Of course you can. But the value of getting a second opinion with extensive experience should not be underestimated. It’s not about replacing or overriding your Team – it’s about making them more marketing aware. They are probably overloaded with daily operative tasks, so “Marketing R&D” may not get full attention without an extra “push”.
Let’s Meet!
Get in touch with me now for a further discussion on how I can contribute to enable your Team to do Better Marketing for greater Sales Productivity!
- I simplify the terminology by placing branding, marketing, and communications under the umbrella of marketing, since branding to support Sales can be seen as long-term marketing. The traditional marketing definition, i.e. product, place, price and promotion, is then more short term.
- Sales Productivity means a couple of things: 1) More relevant Leads to work on > Higher number of prospects ready to buy. 2) Prospects are warmed up > More focus on facts finding and problem solving. 3) More time per opportunity to match solution > Hit rates go up. 4) Confidence in Brand > Margin improvement.
- What is the difference between market oriented and marketing oriented? “Market orientation is a marketing approach wherein the processes of product development and creation are focused on satisfying the needs of consumers. Marketing orientation is the business approach that dictates all the processes within that organization.” Source: https://smallbusiness.chron.com