Here’s a little script for a stage play I’ve been working on. I’ve only got two lines so far, and only two characters – but I think I’ve got the all-important conflict of the drama pretty much nailed.
Here goes…
Sales [irate]: These leads you’ve handed to me are absolutely useless.
Marketing [indignant]: You wouldn’t know a good lead if it slapped you round the face.
Categories: Marketing, Sales, Sales and Marketing : One Team
Being a good negotiator is essential in the corporate world. There are countless deals to be made, partnerships to be formed, and indeed salaries to be bargained for – all of which require a tête-à-tête with another individual who will be as equally determined as you to get the best deal.
Negotiation is a skill, which some people seem to be born with. However, not everyone is a natural negotiator – but that doesn’t mean that you can’t learn how to do it, and how to do it well.
Categories: Sales, Sales Negotiation
Traditionally, sales and marketing teams have been known to have a somewhat, shall we say, turbulent relationship at best. Company cultures have historically dictated that these divisions be kept separate from one another – often working in different parts of the building, or even at completely separate locations altogether.
The result, inevitably, is a breakdown of communication between the two, creating, unfortunately, a prevailing “us-against-them” attitude on both sides of the divide.
Categories: Marketing, Sales, Sales and Marketing : One Team
Both marketing and sales have changed forever.
In the age of the internet – and particularly social media – traditional marketing has been quite savagely displaced by inbound marketing. Blogs, social media competitions, and online videos are increasingly being embraced by businesses far and wide, all with the purpose of drawing greater attention to a brand’s activities via online mediums.
And a similar story is being told from the point of sales.
Categories: Sales
Metrics.
Sales and success are both determined by them. However, it can sometimes feel as if, in 2016, with our unprecedented ability to measure pretty much everything that flows in, out and through the enterprise – from Facebook likes to annual turnover – that our attentions are being constantly misdirected. Indeed, whilst sales managers still demand so much time spent measuring everything under the sun, appropriate levels of energy and resources are left wanting in the areas that actually matter.
Categories: Sales
Here’s a question that all CEOs should ask themselves:
“Are my sales and marketing teams working together as a close-knit unit – or are they, essentially, adversaries?”
Indeed, you may be asking yourself this already – the idea that these key departments should be more co-operative is not, after all, an entirely new concept to most industry executives. However, it seems that even with the best will in the world, there are many organisations that continue to struggle with turning the theory into a working, profitable practice.
Categories: Marketing, Sales, Sales and Marketing : One Team
