Margot and Stan are depicted here in their clearly defined roles acting out the, “what came first chicken or the egg” metaphor.  But is the organisation they are working for planning the marketing and sales strategy.

How many times do you see job descriptions like Sales and Marketing Manager or Sales and Marketing Director advertised.

When you read the job descriptions the companies recruiting are often looking for an experienced salesperson who can pick up a bit of the marketing.

But they rarely define what they mean by “Marketing”, this suggests that the individual will most likely look after a bit of social media, trade marketing and probably organising the odd business expo.

Let’s be accurate now, the strategic importance of marketing is to ensure your products or services are priced to enable you to compete profitably, designed and developed so they are fit for purpose, and your routes to market are the right ones to satisfy demand.  

The final part of the strategy that your target customers need to know is – who you are, what you are selling, where they can buy your products or services and how is it going to benefit them.

The marketing plan and strategy need to be in place before you start selling.  Salespeople are a cost to the business and their investment needs to be recouped in the short term. The sales process is more efficient when marketing has defined the products or services, target customers, pricing, and communication strategy.

So, what comes first sales or marketing – try selling a product or service without doing the marketing before and see how far you get.

If you have enjoyed reading this blog and would like to learn more about E&M Strategic Ltd and how we can help your business. Please visit our website. www.eandmstrategic.co.uk