What is the difference between “Marketing and Selling” and why should we continue to invest in Marketing or Selling?
Marketing is about fertilizing the soil so that when you sow seeds (Sell) the seeds will germinate and grow easily.
The “more fertilized your soil is the less work you have to do to germinate the seed”
Marketing in a business sense is about building “Awareness”:
There are 2 things we need to build awareness of:
- Our Brand because familiarity builds credibility and credibility builds Trust and Trust leads to More Sales.
- Our Products because if the client does not know what we do then how will they know to ask us for them?
Remember: the more Marketing is done, the less is required in the Sales process.
In fact, you may have already experienced this.
Sometimes a new prospect would act like they have known you for many years when in fact you have only just met them. Thus, the sales process becomes simply “Taking an Order” because Trust has already been established.
The marketing we have done at Chan & Naylor to achieve this as we’ve grown include:
- Digital Marketing Such As Google Ads
- Sending Newsletters
- Attending Conferences
- Conducting Seminars
- Alliance Partners Talking About Us And Referring Their Clients To Us
- Seminars With Alliance Partners
- Our Articles That Appear In Our Alliance Partners Newsletters
- Social Media Work By Our Team
- The Effectiveness Of Our Website
- Publishing Our Own Books
The prospects have become familiar with our Brand and Trust has already been established.
Thus making the sales process so much easier when you are in front of them.
The less marketing that is done, the more that’s required in the sales process.
If a prospect has no familiarity with our brand, there is no trust and therefore no credibility and people may even be suspicious of our brand.
In this environment, the sales process is much more difficult and expensive and labour-intensive. You will have to rely much more on your sales skills to convert a client.
Therefore it’s much more cost-effective and scalable to invest in Marketing.
No selling is required.
No sales skills are required.
The more you invest in Marketing the less you spend in Selling and the less you invest in Marketing the more you spend in Selling. So where should one invest their money?
The answer obviously is in Marketing. But why do so many businesses do so little of this?
They often see it as an expense and not as an investment. That’s because ineffective marketing can be really a huge waste of money.
You will notice even with your own SME clients the business clients who are more successful tend to invest in effective marketing strategies. If you’re not putting your marketing as one of your top priorities, then you’ll find it harder to sell your services in the long run.
Once you have good marketing strategies in place, you can take a step back and watch as your leads grow.