Episode Details

Are your sales people a cost to the business? Background - some people perceive some business expenses as COST CENTRES and others as PROFIT CENTRES. Cost centres - dont make you any profit and don't add to the bottom line e.g HR functions and security personnel Profit centres - things you do that are directly tied to bringing in revenue in the business e.g product lines and customer segments. Why is this question important? Because some people see sales and marketing as cost centres to the business - operations in the business that are more COST than BENEFIT. That's the reason why - people don't want to hire sales consultants - people don't want to hire more salespeople or marketers - people don't want to spend money on advertising and promos (aiming for organic growth) etc The rationale - if it's more cost than benefit then there's no point spending the money Two philosophical problems with this approach 1. Misunderstanding of the value and role of sales and marketing - the idea that the product sells itself and that referrals are what you need for business growth 2. Wrong idea that cost cutting/ lean management is the greatest skill you can exercise in business Role of marketing in business? - awareness - nobody can buy without being aware of the company/ product lines/ services Marketing ends up being a series of "one to many" conversations - advertising/ promotions/ online content/ etc. Sales - subset of marketing discipline where you have "one to one" conversations to not only biuld awareness, but confirm the order and get the sale. Marketing and sales and the business functions most directly responsible for bringing in profit. They are not cost centres. They are profit centres. The problem is everything thinks it should be intuitive, come naturally, and most people freestyle which makes it VERY INEFFECTIVE in most business. Sales and marketing to be done effective require training, frameworks, and learnable skills to be imbibed by everyone who comes in direct contact with customers/ clients (sales team/ receptionist/ delivery driver/ engineers working on site - team member who actually carries out the work and interacts with the customer or client/ etc). IF SALES AND MARKETING ARE ONLY BRINGING YOU MORE COSTS IN YOUR BUSINESS, YOU AREN'T DOING THEM RIGHT - your options are either learn how to do sales and marketing better but using tone of free resources on the internet (podcast over 612 free episodes), or hire a business consultant (like me). Does the propduct sell itself - NO - you need a sales person or marketer to negotiate distribution to put it on the market shelf - you need sales people and marketers to negotiate with stockists/ traders so your goods enter the open market - you need marketing, promotions and sales skills to put your product or service out on Instagram/ TV/ the whole wide world - THERE IS NO MYTHICAL PRODUCT or serive THAT SELLS ITSELF. Are referrals all you need to grow a business? NO effcient selling and marketing skills CREATE A HAPPY CUSTOMER WHO IS THE FOUNDATION FOR GOOD REFERRALS. Referrals only happen BECAUSE of a good selling experience/ marketing experience/ customer service experience, etc. Referrals don't create themselves. Is cost cutting/ lean management the greatest business skill towards growing a business? NO Cost cutting is essential because there's no point in spending money/ being wasteful if you don't have to. But the greater skill is in BRINGING IN MONEY IN THE FIRST PLACE. It's only when we have money that we can quibble over whether we're being wasteful or not. Money only comes into the business when a customer has been created. The customer or client pays for a product/ service and gives us the money to practice lean managment on. Creating or attracting that customer is the responsibility of sales and marketing. Sales and marketing are not cost centres. They are profit centres.....