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30 sales and marketing mistakes

As the economy slows, it's tempting to cut the sales and marketing budget. A better idea is to reassess the strategy. But watch out for the 30 most common sales and marketing blunders.

Admit it. You are thinking of cutting your sales and marketing budget, aren’t you?

Not yet? As the year progresses, sales fall, prices rise and competitors and shareholders become more aggressive, you will consider it. 

But don’t. Take some time out to rethink your marketing and sales strategies. New technology means you can reach more people, more cheaply. New ways to sell means you might get a better result.

Here are 30 mistakes entrepreneurs make when expanding fast growth companies, and the lessons they learnt. Some are classic mistakes made from time immemorial. Others apply directly to ’08.

Where do the lessons come from? Countless interviews with entrepreneurs and my research with RMIT University over the past 20 years, which has studied the lessons from high growth companies’ experiences.

Mistake 1:

Entrepreneurs still confuse sales and marketing

Entrepreneurs often excel at marketing but are not so good at selling. Why? Selling focuses on the needs of the seller who needs to convert their product or service into hard cash. Marketing focuses on the need of the buyer – satisfying the needs of the customer.

Successful entrepreneurs are usually very market-focused and very good at satisfying the needs of the customer. But developing the skills to sell means acquiring a completely different skill set.

What do the best entrepreneurs do? Keep the two functions separate, but ensure there is intensive knowledge sharing as the internet changes the roles of sales and marketing.

Mistake 2:

No clear strategies coming into a downturn

Entrepreneurs loathe doing business plans. So asking for marketing plans and sales plans updated every year is pushing the envelope. But you should now be working towards different strategies heading into 2008 that focus on sales growth in a slowing market, such as entering long-term sales contracts and retainers.

Mistake 3:

Loving the customer to (your) death

Spending too much time with low-value clients is a perennial problem, mainly because entrepreneurs take a marketing perspective and not a sales perspective. It also means you miss other sales opportunities, and solutions created for one customer may not be applicable to others.

Mistake 4:

Using pre-internet sales methods to sell

The internet is now doing a lot of the job that your sales people used to do. A good website will explain what your product does, its features and why your company is different. So what are your salespeople doing in 2008?

They should be talking to customers about the outcomes they will enjoy and the benefits they will get.

Mistake 5:

It costs too much to get to the customer

This is a common mistake made in the small and medium business market. As you can not rely on customers finding you, you must find the customer. A key part of the strategy is to find multiple channels to market. This can be an enormous challenge as often your competitors have already locked up distribution channels to target customers with pre-existing agreements.

Read the full story at  http://www.smartcompany.com.au/