2 Big Marketing Ideas for 2012

Without a doubt, formulating the new ideas and innovations necessary to drive success for your company in the coming year is daunting. In today’s uncertain economy and difficult business climate, it’s easy to get caught up in the kind of anxieties that freeze your market share and impede progress in the name of caution. Remember: the safe road never leads to greatness.

In order to be truly remarkable and create the kind of company that gets people talking, you need to do things differently. Changing the way your company does business starts with a close look at the way you interact with your clients or customers. That means re-examining your sales and marketing approach. Again, this process isn’t easy. It requires that you step outside of comfortable patterns and think about your business in new ways.

With this in mind, the following “big ideas” will help you think differently about your sales and marketing efforts, carry your company successfully into 2012 and beat the pants off of the competition:

1. Transitioning to a guided sales process

2. Creating a revenue department

#1. The Guided Sales Process

Given the changes in buyer behavior outlined briefly above, it should come as no surprise that the new consumer does not want to be “sold.” Chances are, your potential customers have already researched your products or services long before they ever set foot in your store or contact your company. If your marketing efforts are working effectively, then the sales process has already begun by the time this first contact is made.

Therefore, instead of selling or pushing your company’s products and services to every lead, you need to retrain your sales force to act as consultants, taking the time to learn and understand each prospective customer’s pains, answer any questions they may have and, ultimately, guide them to the best possible solution. By illustrating how your business can ease each customer’s unique pains, instead of trying to tell them why they need your products or services, your new sales guides act as co-creators (along with the customer) of the final solution. This ultimately results in more informed purchasing decisions and a dramatic increase in customer loyalty, since each customer is now personally invested in and integral to the sales process.

Slick, fast-talking, hard-selling salespeople have no place in the new inbound marketing business model. On the contrary, your new sales guides should take on the role of trusted advisors, facilitating the sales process with the kind of honest, knowledgeable information and resources necessary to help consumers come to every purchasing decision on their own. That doesn’t mean taking a completely passive stance. Follow up calls and emails are still an integral step in the new, guided sales process. The difference is in the approach: instead of calling or emailing to find out if the prospective customer is “ready to buy,” your sales guides should, instead, call to see if he or she can be of any further assistance, answering any additional questions or concerns the customer may have.

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#2. The Revenue Department

Once you have begun to adapt your business to the new buyer behavior with a guided sales process, it’s critical to ensure that this process is fully supported and enhanced by your marketing efforts. For decades, companies of every size and across countless industries have separated their sales and marketing efforts into two distinct departments: one to drive customers to your door (marketing) and one to close the deal (sales).

This division has given rise to a number of dangerous misunderstandings, miscommunications, and missed opportunities. All too often, these separate departments find themselves at odds regarding the best methods and approaches for driving revenue, resulting in two important aspects of your business pulling in different, often conflicting directions.

Your new guided sales process demands a more integrated approach. When you align the objectives of your marketing (lead-generation) and sales (deal-closing) efforts to the common goal of revenue generation, the result is a seamless system in which every team member is pulling in the same direction. By combining your sales and marketing team members into a single, cohesive entity called the Revenue Department, you ensure that every member of your team works together to reach your company’s overall goals. More importantly, you ensure that consistent progress toward those goals is measurable, achievable and sustainable.

Creating positive change within your business structure may seem difficult, but it is essential to move your business forward. Whatever you do, don’t stand still. Remember, as Confucius said: Every long journey begins with a single step. Of course, there’s one thing Confucius left out: If you don’t start taking those steps now, you will very likely be left behind by the competition before long.

This article is part of NY Report's Accelerate 2012 series. To read more, click here.