After 30 Years in Sales & Marketing

After over 30 years of progressive experience in sales and marketing with both Fortune 500 companies and smaller ones, the past 12 years in senior level positions, here’s what I have learned:

•        Sales is not marketing, and marketing is not sales. They are meant to work together and support mutual goals. Unfortunately this doesn’t happen often enough…I have learned how to fix that.

•        Most companies (especially small and medium sized) approach marketing from a purely tactical standpoint. They “try” different tactics, and then wonder why they don’t produce more leads and sales. I have learned that a sound marketing strategy works much better.

•        What passes as a strategy for most companies is the result of a sleazy salesperson selling a tactic under the guise of an easy fix posing as a strategy. I have learned that developing an effective strategy takes time and hard work, but is well worth the effort.

•        A contact is NOT a lead. It is merely the name, company, location, and phone/email for an individual…nothing more and nothing less. A lead is someone who is truly interested in your product or service and already knows about it. I have learned how to generate more leads.

•        The sales “game” has changed dramatically over the past 10 -12 years, and if you don’t understand those seismic changes you will NOT survive. The biggest change is a little online company called Google…have you heard of them? Your buyers have, and they use it every day to learn who sells the product or service they need. I have learned how to position a company to be found by those buyers.

•        I have learned that buyers don’t want to hear a “pitch”, they want to be educated on their need. I learned how to develop marketing materials that educate prospects.

•        I have learned that Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Social Media in general can be used effectively to grow your business.

Lastly, I have learned that to provide value to my clients I must continue learning.