Selling isn’t a numbers game.

Sales people have product to move, quotas to meet. They have less time and larger territories than ever before. And to make matters worse, selling cycles are getting longer as decision makers strain to balance the competing needs for value and quality.

Why then do so many sales reps ignore sales leads generated at great expense by advertising, websites, direct mail, email and other promotional efforts?

Simple. It is more productive, more cost-effective for them to work existing leads, recontact existing customers and develop referral business than it is to call on an unqualified lead.

What do sales reps want? [...]

Get sales and marketing on the same page.

All too often, sales and marketing people have different objectives. If they do, they can spend more time bickering than creating bottom line results. Or worse, they just go their separate ways.

If you want to find out if your sales and marketing people are working together, send them a simple questionnaire. Make sure a copy goes to every sales rep, manager and executive. Send it to every person in the marketing department and the people at your ad agency, design studio or public relations firm.

Ask them this…

Why advertise in a down economy?

OK, fine. Nobody likes the “R” word. But like it or not, we are smack dab in the middle of a recession. The question we all face is what do we do about it? You want to cut costs, but where? For some companies the decision is easy, the first cut they make is advertising. But you are not so sure.

I can think of eight solid reasons to continue advertising during a recession. They might even justify boosting your budget, but only if you are prepared to come out the other end as a market leader!

Hey Qwest, take me off your list.

I have a bone to pick with the marketing people at Qwest. You know, the telephone/cell phone/satellite TV/DSL/VoIP people. Each week, they bombard me dozens, maybe hundreds of times with the same message… “Bundle and save.”

At this point, I would equate their efforts to waterboarding. I don’t want to trivialize the controversial “interrogation” method, but I would like to express my opinion of Qwest in a word. Yes, “waterboarding” does it quite nicely.

I don’t have a problem with the newspaper ads and inserts. No complaints about billboards, as long as they are truthful. But why am I getting so many direct mail pieces and telemarketing calls?

Stop selling, start listening.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that this is a natural law: Everybody wants to buy, nobody wants to be sold. Some of us like to shop, others don’t. But let’s face it, buying stuff feels good. New car, new shirt, tasty Napa cabernet, whatever. I used to coach the president of a moving company whose eyes lit up like Christmas morning when he talked about buying a couple of new trucks.

Maybe it’s just me, but I am annoyed by uninvited sales people (telemarketers, retail clerks, pushy sales reps of all shapes, sizes and descriptions) and the daily onslaught of sales messages (email, banner ads, radio and TV commercials, direct mail, billboards). To me, it’s all spam… unless it talks to me about something I want to buy. Then it’s right place, right time… thanks for making my life much easier! How can you put this “natural law” to work?

Stop selling, start listening. You’ll sell more if you do.

A classy way to say goodbye.

When marketing works perfectly, it is a closed loop. Product Introduction > Sales Process > Customer Service > (loop) When the relationship is humming along, the elements overlap and everybody. Customers are “loyal” and suppliers are fat and happy, but stuff happens. What do you do when a customer leaves?

Five Ways to Increase Sales Productivity

Let me begin by saying that I have tremendous respect for sales people. They have an extremely difficult and vitally important job. When they are successful, everyone benefits—customers, owners, managers, widget makers, support staff, consultants. Therefore, it is in everyone’s interests that sales people are given the support, encouragement and tools they need to succeed.

To that end, I offer the following strategies for increasing sales productivity. When they are successfully implemented, your customers and everyone in your organization will benefit.

What is marketing?

For most of my career, I have owned, operated, served and consulted with small to mid-size businesses. I don’t pretend to know how Fortune 500 executives think about marketing, but I have a pretty good idea about the other guys.