Marketeers are a dying race!

A lot has been said and written about the “death of a salesman”, but I would like to claim that it is not really this function that will go away but rather that of the marketeer!

Facts

Here are 2 facts that I want to point out:

• As millennials, Gen X, Y and Z are becoming part of the business population, they are all digitally native and savvy. Marketeers often times make the mistake thinking they are the only ones that know and understand social. Though this might have been the case 3 to 5 years ago today that is no longer true. Catching up on knowledge and ability to learn to built into our systems as human being.
• Every business is in business to “sell” their product and make money. No money = no business! – very simply put.  And yes, people do not want to be sold but selling is an intricate part of getting the product in front of people (especially in a B2B environment). There is thus no buying without selling or the ying & yang of business.

Why marketeers will not replace salespeople

I can already hear the loud complaints of marketeers around the world, but here are my reasons to say that they will not replace sales. Let’s be honest the old saying: “people buy from people they know, like and trust” is still valid in our current economy.

• Marketing often times work in the isolation of their office building. They use Marketing Automation systems to gather data on clients but that is not having a conversation even though they pretend they do. I would argue that the know, like or even trust factors are not met for marketeers.
• Marketeers love personas. Last I checked, personas are not real people but make-up profiles to the best of their ability.  Would they recognize such as person when they meet them in real life? I doubt it.
• Marketing uses bots to have conversations but really it not a conversation (some do even look at these conversations). It is like marketeers are shy and introverts that do not want to talk to anyone. So the conversation element is not present.
• Marketing creates content, but it is never enough, not aligned with what the client wants or the buying journey. It is the wrong content because it based on what they thing the customer journey is and the needs are. Clients demand personalized (we all agree on this) and not generic content that has their name on it.
• Of course, marketeers will argue they can influence buying decisions but are they ready to carry the burden of the “quota” and revenue making? If they would, they would be called … Yes; salespeople! Or this why we have all these fancy job titles (“client success manager, chief happiness officer, etc.)

Salespeople are back with a vengeance

There is a new breed of salespeople emerging: “social sellers” or relationship-based sellers. Their focus is all about Engagement and conversations between the buyer and the seller which will define whether a product is purchased or not. Know, like and trust! 

These people have also mastered the skills of the marketeers and combine them with their traditional sales skills.

• Salespeople are great at creating and maintaining conversations (including the chit chat) to build personal relationships based on real people interaction. The know, like and trust factor is here dominantly at work.
• Salespeople are well placed to create great content. Armed with their smartphone they make photos and video’s (which we all know works on social) of their clients, products, and services hard at work. Possible this is the area salespeople need to do some catching up but it is happening fast.
• Salespeople are also well placed to curate content. They know exactly what will be of interest to their clients based on the real conversations and are able to find the content that adds value to these conversations.

So who needs marketeers when your salespeople have all these skills and they bring in revenue. Sales understand their customers better than marketing because of the conversations. They become an enabler of engagement and conversation. Remember, people still buy from people and not logo’s or bots or even marketeers in their office building.

The future for marketeers

If marketeers are not going to adapt, they risk disappearing like the dinosaurs. Their skills are being picked up by many salespeople and it is only a matter of time before they catch up. So what can they do the extend their life? They can try to become the trusted advisors to their salespeople by:

• Teaching them how to better create content
• Create better and more content
• Learn them how to better curate content
• Become the content curation machine for their salespeople
• Step into the salesman’s shoes to better understand what clients need

The age of the social seller is here!

Bring on the debate in the comment field below…