There are three things we all spend every single day.
They are all three critically important, yet we all spend very little time (myself included) analyzing the return we get for each investment.
You probably think about one of these things regularly.
I’m talking about TEM – Time, Energy and Money.
Most of of us in business have been conditioned to look at money. The really sophisticated think about time. But energy is a whole different thing.
I have a bit of a reputation for “riffing” about the problem with having sales and marketing under different departments.
Why? Because separating them is a huge waste of TEM.
Look, we all spend time, energy and money. If you are in business you hopefully are very conscious of these things and measuring them accounts allows you to track the ROI of all these resources. You have technology, spreadsheets, consultants and accountants to tell you how you are doing.
Yet, some things are simple enough to understand that you don’t need all that. They are so obvious upon explanation that you almost seem frustrated it had to be explained.
Why train and develop two teams? Why create two separate scoreboards to measure success, two reward systems and two investments?
I believe this is why “branding” and “marketing” has earned a bad name in business over the last 30 years. There hasn’t been a solid ROI or a result to point to because they have been so removed from the impact they are having in TEM that they could easily be justified in deletion.
Every great salesperson knows that great marketing and a brand that has value beyond a commodity is an unfair advantage over the competition.
The reality is that all good CFO’s know it too, but they often are too removed from how that advantage can be measured to really care “this quarter.”
Your sales acquisition system should be integrated into one holistic system so you can understand the relationship between how improving your brand makes your conversion go up. How if your leads go up, your sale recruiting gets easier. If your marketing gets a new tactic that drives inbound sales, your customer retention increases because they feel like they are getting serviced more because your salespeople follow up more often.
Time, Energy and Money – they are finite resources.
Why spend them twice?
—–
Tony Scelzo is a sales and marketing expert who created Stringcan’s Teach Marketing strategy to serve clients with strategic connections and provide tools to amplify their organization. What would 20% more qualified leads do for your bottomline? Contact Stringcan today to learn how integrated marketing strategies will amplify your business.
Graphic credit: Campus India
