What is marketing?

If you ask this question to different people in business, I would venture a guess that you will get different responses. Marketing, my marketing philosophy, is about finding ways to connect and communicate with your potential customers about the product or services you provide.

What is a sale?

This one is a little more cut and dry; it is closing the deal. Exchanging cash for product or services provided.

The point I am making is that marketing is not sales. Marketing is strategy you use to drive interested parties into your sales pipeline, but it cannot close the deal for you. Marketing, when done properly, should drive the right people to your business and from there your sales strategy should take the person to a close.

Let’s use a football analogy; marketing is your quarterback but the receiver is your sales strategy. The quarterback gets the ball to the receiver, and he takes it into the end zone for the touchdown. Sometimes it takes the quarterback a few passes to get the touchdown to the right receiver; think of this as the multiple touches during the sales process.

Marketing, Sales and Your Website

Now let’s look at your company website; does your website support your end game? If you’re clear about who you are as a business and who your customer is, then you need to evaluate the marketing and sales capabilities of your website.

Lead Generation On Your Website

Is your website designed to communicate and connect with your potential customer in a way to generate a lead? This question is the one you should be focused on as you review your website and how it is supporting your business. If you understand who you are and the needs of your potential customer, then you should have designed a path for them to follow on your website. Think like a physical store that lays down a way to navigate through the aisles. Your website needs to guide the user toward a goal.

Follow Through Off Your Website

Once your website has done its job of capturing the interested party, you need to implement an off website sales strategy. What is your follow through? How will you convert them to a client? This is a sales process now and before you launch a website, your sales process should also be outlined. How many follow-ups does it normally take to convert a customer? How will you connect with them: phone, email or social media? What steps do they take before the final decision to buy is made?

Understanding this process and having the answers to these questions can help you ensure your marketing is driving sales. But it is important to remember that marketing is not sales and we all need a sales process.