MODERN SALES professional service and during other informal client contacts . Hence , the term “ marketing ” encapsulates both marketing and service delivery . In many such firms , it is not surprising that marketing is often merely a promotional function . Some forward-looking firms , however , have appointed a senior “ Marketing Partner ” who oversees both sales and marketing , with excellent results .
As you may rightly say , the literature is replete with criticism of the lack of pragmatism in many marketing strategies emanating from the marketing department . Typical is the following , from Neil Rackham .
“ Value propositions have a bad reputation in selling because they are usually too generic and theoretical . Sales and Marketing should jointly customise value propositions . “
Even worse , McKinsey report that 60- 70 % of UK companies use the term within their companies , but only 5 % have clearly articulated written value propositions .
Selling and Sales force management have become much more professional . In the second decade of the 21st century , expenditure on personal selling is still considerably larger than the combined expenditure on both advertising and sales promotion , in spite of a fashionable belief in the 1980s that preciselytargeted marketing methods would make the need for personal selling all but disappear . The reason that the reverse has happened is simply because no one has yet discovered a more effective way of communicating with customers , of exploring the needs of increasingly complex decision-making units , of alleviating any concerns they may have , and of communicating the full benefits
Efficient
SALES TACTICS
Inefficient
4 Die ( Quickly )
3 Die ( Slowly )
of a company ’ s offer . Additionally , research shows that , contrary to popular belief , companies welcome representatives as a valuable source of information about developments . Vast sums of money have been spent during the past decade by many organizations , with the aim of improv ¬ ing the sales force ’ s productivity . Great strides forward have been made in most areas of sales force manage ¬ ment . In particular , most sales people today recognize when to sell and when to negotiate . Territory allocation and planning is no longer the hitand-miss affair that it used to be . Recruitment is now a much more scientific process , with most firms aware of the value of psycho ¬ metric testing as part of the selection process . Sales managers tend to use more supportive teambuilding methods rather than the old , hierarchical , tyrannical ways .
Remuneration packages are better related to the tasks that have to be performed . Evaluation procedures have improved dramatically with
MARKETING STRATEGY Ineffective
Effective
1 Thrive
2 Survive
the advent of relational databases . In general , it can be concluded that today ’ s sales forces are more motivated , more professional , and more productive than they were ten years ago .
In spite of these dramatic improvements , however , the sales force is still a grossly underutilized and poorly-directed marketing resource . This has more to do with ineffective marketing strategy than with inefficient sales strategy . Figure 1 represents this problem more clearly .
For the sake of brevity , let us only look at Box 4 , which is representative of many European organizations , in that much effort has been invested in sharpening up sales efficiency . But , without an effective marketing strategy , these investments merely hasten the company ’ s decline . After
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