Marketing: The Builders of Wealth
"Nothing happens until the sale is made," is most often quoted as a lead-in to praising salespeople. And the speaker is almost right, but we know that deep in our B2B marketing hearts, it all starts sooner than that.
In B2B, nothing happens until the marketer creates demand. Without the marketer most B2B companies would be regional door knockers; they would not be able to go beyond the reach of their salespeople. Marketing in B2B companies creates Wealth. I mean real wealth. Hardcore, measurable, bottom line profitable dollars that drives the growth of our 11,000,000 plus businesses in the US.
On any given day the average marketer knocks on more virtual doors, delivers more messages, and is read by more people, than any sales force could possibly accomplish. Marketers and their surrogates, the agencies (on-line, branding, direct marketing, PR) and telemarketing and trade shows are the hammers by which B2B marketers create wealth.
Company presidents use, as a common measurement, their company’s performance by the amount of revenue per employee or per salesperson. But if they were to measure the revenue per marketer in their company they would be astounded. For every 100 salespeople there is a single marketer, sitting in a cubicle late at night, rewriting the words that will create a response on the part of thousands of potential buyers.
For every 5000 salespeople there is an agency creative director who is wrestling with an idea that will ultimately bring in millions of dollars in wealth to the client he or she represents.
But the credit for these creators of wealth seldom makes its way to their office door or to the meager paychecks they bring home. The reason is that too many of them cannot measure their contributions to the wealth of the company. And no one will do it for them.
Marketers must not only create wealth, they must prove it to management. This can only happen if they have a system to verify and pursue beyond all reasonable doubt, that the demand they create, the millions of potential buyers who knock on every B2B company door each day have bought something from their company.
There is one simple answer to this conundrum. Marketers must have the best Sales Lead Management System money will buy. The paltry cost for an accountability system is the only way the real creators of wealth, the marketers, can take their rightful place in B2B society.
My challenge to you, the midnight toilers, and the creators of wealth is, "When will you decide that enough is enough? When will you measure what you manage?"
The blog you wrote today is priceless. The minute I read it I sent it to my contact at a company I have been working with for months. Recently the marketing manager informed me that the VP of Sales and Marketing decided against buying our software at this time. This is the rationale:
"Unfortunately, unless the cost for lead track comes down substantially, there is not much enthusiasm from my boss. He would rather invest such a considerable percentage of our marketing budget on promoting over tracking the results of the promoting."
She replied that she loved your article and is going to send it to her boss. It may not result in a sale but it sure gives credibility to the marketing manager. Your closing statement should be a wakeup call to this company..."When will you decide that enough is enough? When will you measure what you manage?"
Great job Jim!
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Jim, will you ask your clients to stand up and take credit for the wealth they create? By showing they are creating a 5x to 10x return for every dollar they spend they assume tremendous power in their organizations. They are equal to salespeople. Marketers need stand up and be proud.
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Jim,
Your article makes a strong point about the value of marketing to any organization. While I'm not sure that its value can be measured in the same way as sales (apples vs. oranges) it is certainly true that most executives give less credence to Marketing ROI than they do to Sales. Marketers should heed your wakeup call!
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Segmentation – Segmentation – Segmentation, it can not be preached enough. If we (marketing) are not measuring sales cycle dynamics with our leads then how can we know how to accurately segment our market in the future. Yes marketing can and will build wealth but without the analysis of the sales cycle, you will be relying on luck in the future.
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Finally someone willing to shine the light of truth upon a well known, but seldom enunciated, truth. Not that Jim's books haven't echoed this position over the years...but it cannot, will not, be overstated.
Having served on both sides of the aisle I cannot exaggerate the importance of sales and marketing working together. But who is afforded the accolades...not just monetarily but on-stage at the annual sales meeting...the top salesperson, of course. And well deserved! But we all know it is marketing that creates the wellspring of qualified leads. In down times companies tend to cut marketing before they reduce the sales force. Jim makes a powerful argument that they are really cutting off both arms with but one sword slash. Thanks for a well thought out and common sense opinion.
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Great article! It hits the mark!
Things are changing slowly. As I talk to more and more marketers at all levels about helping them build demand as measured in leads, I am running across VPs of Marketing with QUOTAS! I know at least one Marketing VP that has a sales qualified lead and REVENUE quota!
The good new is that resources (technology) are now finally available to help the Marketer prove value and ROI. Unfortunately, no SINGLE tool is the perfect answer right now. We have had to manually bridge technology silos to prove ROI to the C-suite. Please keep in mind that the technology is nothing without Lead Management expertise found in organizations like your and mine.
As the economy slows and budgets shrink, we will get busier and busier.
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Great comments on a sometimes scary topic. A professional tracking system offered by a number of lead management companies and CRM applications would be a great thing to have. But, you still can’t get blood from a turnip. Many, if not most, small companies see a sales lead management system as something for the big guys and the cost as an expense, not as an investment because they haven’t seen the baby steps of measured and reported accomplishment. Start with what they know and accept as currency…qualified sales leads. “Qualified” is often in the eye of the beholder. Let sales help identify what constitutes a qualified lead. Then get a number of how many they need to open the number of new accounts they are required to get by year end. It doesn't require a whole system to get some simple metrics in place that are accepted by management and sales. They may not be the best to start, but once they have seen some simple metrics achieved, you can move up the chain. Sometimes winning the little battles for a year or two will lead to winning the war. Pick and choose which battles will help achieve your long-term goal of an “investment” in a sales lead management system. By the time you get it, everyone will be involved and committed to making it work!
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Hi Jim! Terrific post. A couple observations if I may ...
First, management likes to watch the "end of the movie," which is the sale itself. Unless and until marketers can get them to also watch the "making of the sale," i.e., marketing, we're at a disadvantage. The good news is that if we market what we do as well as we market what we sell, management will participate and respect marketers more.
Second, marketers enjoy a longer time perspective than sales people. Sales folks have short-term quotas. I urge marketers to influence management to attend to both short-term and long-term business development. That's where the wealth is!
Michael A. Brown
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