Just today I sat for an hour talking with two other experienced marketers about a great Australian phenomenon – the Sales & Marketing Manager.
Anyone with this title on their business card, I try to help them as much as possible. Not because they are incapable, but because these are brave men and women who are given two distinct roles that are poles apart rolled into one.
And they are normally coping with a huge shortfall of resources. Sometimes it’s no resources at all.
Oddly enough, this happens because their senior management has no idea that if the two roles were split and managed by modern technology, you can exploit the true effect of their respective roles.
Sales is propelled by and enriches company revenue, marketing is the company’s production line for value and modern branding.
If you are given the task to manage both, I am the first to congratulate you for tenacity because it’s akin to a shift worker handling night shifts and day shifts perpetually without ever stopping to sleep.
Now if you have the aforementioned job title on your business card, how often do you walk into your office and wonder what is actually going on? How often do you stress out contemplating what your next move is, knowing full well it is nearly impossible to keep up with the job demands?
Do you define the problem as being one where a system is lacking?
Over the last 12 months, my co-Director Ian Jacob and I have made it a habit to ask ‘Sales & Marketing Managers’ around Australia if they have a system which takes the politics out of running two near-antonymous professional departments.
The overwhelming majority don’t, largely because the preconceived vision of a system is a task-laden structure involving a lot of personnel entrusted to stay faithful to the formula.
However, there is a minority which is beginning to live and breathe the modern solution. Every other aspect of the business is technology driven, so why shouldn’t marketing and sales be that way as well?
It gives a highly organised framework, cuts out all the leg work, and allows these two disciplines to grow into their natural tangents while freeing you from being hands on and allowing you to manage from up high.
While it’s a lot to take in straight away, perhaps we can help you understand the net effect of using technology? Let’s look at a single issue task – such as cold calling and how to gradually eliminate it.
In this free, easy to read e-book, we outline how software empowered technology takes your sales staff away from cold calling (the most hated job in the profession) and instead allows your marketing department to utilise their strengths in driving a lead generation machine.
In a quiet moment, have a read of it. Feel the perspective. And understand where it can all take you.