#64: Marketing & Sales Work Together

The luxury of having a dedicated marketing department and a dedicated sales department is pretty much reserved for large companies. That organizational structure is beyond the reach of most small businesses, including the majority of mitigation & restoration companies.

That’s the reason that a franchise system such as SERVPRO Industries and others will recommend that a franchisee hire a “sales and marketing” manager, a person who assumes both roles and also leads his or her team by performing some actual sales duties. This is a reasonable solution for the business owner who wants to promote and grow their business.

However, few “sales and marketing managers” are equally strong in both disciplines.

That’s just a reality. It’s not a criticism. People’s skills and knowledge are based upon the experiences and life lessons they have had. Most persons in a “dual role” will favor one discipline over the other, and will thus be stronger in one discipline over the other. This is human nature, we all tend to focus on what we are comfortable about and enjoy doing.

The danger becomes when a “sales and marketing manager” leans too heavily on one discipline over the other. A manager who believes that marketing programs are far more effective than sales, may try to spend their way to success. They might buy lots of advertising, big spends on pay-per-click and the like. Meantime, they don’t invest “marketing dollars” on programs and materials that could empower a sales person, a sales team. A manager who favors sales over marketing may be uninformed about current, cost effective marketing innovations that could help their company’s ROI. Inadvertently they hold their company back.

We have to consider the owner’s perspective.

After all, they factor into this discussion too. Owners almost always have thoughts about marketing versus sales. They know what is working or not working from their bottom line perspective. My observation of many owners is that they believe that most marketing and sales activities are a waste of money… they would prefer to just have a “chaser” signup fire and water damaged properties (point-of-need sales). This is understandable because the company benefits from instant results, and everyone knows where the most recent sale came from. Point-of-need selling should play an important part of every mitigation/restoration company for sure. However, having a healthy approach to business growth means having a united, calculated and balanced approach about marketing and sales. Remember, there is no one silver bullet.

At Harben Marketing we offer advice (even a workshop) for owners and sales/marketing managers on ways to effectively promote business and grow profits, by using time proven and new sales and marketing strategies. Text me at 510-325-3009 - Clayton A. Barry