Which comes first: marketing or sales? It’s an age-old question – almost as old as the chicken and egg quandary.
Don’t you have to market to make a sale?
Don’t you have to make a sale to know your market?
The answer to both may be “yes”. Either way, what we know at 360 Consulting is that marketing priorities must be driven by sales — particularly for B2B companies in the small to-mid size market.
Here’s why:
The Brand Myth
In recent years, there has been a lot of importance placed on branding. Sometimes it is even suggested that without strong branding, you aren’t going to get anywhere. It takes an immense amount of money to build a brand.
But for most B2B companies, the truth is that their customers do not care about brand! Most B2B companies waste an enormous amount of money on marketing and branding with very little to show for it.
Brand is actually built by delivering the outcomes promised by your products and services. Customer referrals, testimonials, and repeat purchases are what matter most. And these are the result of a customer’s experience of your products and services.
Efficiency Is Key for A Small-Mid Market B2B
The purpose of marketing is to influence buyers to favor your company over your competition and take action.
For most B2B companies in the small to mid-market size, every dollar and every sale is precious. These companies simply can’t afford to spend money on anything that doesn’t directly produce revenues or drive more profits. Therefore, the best results come from knowing your buyer and having a direct relationship with them.
The sales team knows who the target buyer is because they have sold to them and have direct contact with them. Because of this, the information gleaned here can set the direction for marketing to keep their focus on those buyers. Sales also knows the specific messaging that resonates with buyers which can then be used across all marketing campaigns.
For more tips on selling to the right market, check out our last post, https://www.360consultingdfw.com/are-you-selling-to-your-target-market/ !
How to Use Sales to Drive Marketing
We’ve looked at the benefits of setting marketing strategy based on sales.
So now let’s take a quick look at some of the other benefits that come from having a direct relationship with buyers.
Marketing teams can use customer feedback directly for:
- Marketing purposes via online reviews
- Using customer testimonials on websites (always ask for permission and do not reveal personal information!)
- Promotional emails
- Leveraging social media proof
With this information, the marketing team can also gauge the needs of customers in a given market area. Hence you will not only gain invaluable information about what products and services to develop that customers will want to purchase. But you will also gain the insight required to know whether or not your current products and services continue to serve an important role in providing solutions to that market.
Selling the right solutions to your market creates easy and direct marketing messages, and this brings us back around to sales driving marketing.
Interested in learning more about how your company will benefit from sales-driven marketing? 360 Consulting can work out a strategy customized for your business. Schedule a FREE consultation here!