Published October 2002

Put marketing ahead
of sales to move inventory

The term “sales and marketing” is a misnomer. Reverse-engineering the sales and marketing process can significantly increase your closing ratio.

Before illustrating my point, I’ll give you my definition of “sales” and “marketing.”

Sales is the process of selling customers what’s already on the shelf. Marketing is the process of finding out what customers want to see on the shelf. A third definition, and just as important, is service, which is the process of ensuring customers don’t buy what’s on the competitor’s shelf.

The two common denominators in all three are “customer” and “shelf” (which is your inventory). If you put “marketing” functions ahead of “sales” activities, you’ll move more stuff off the shelf.

Most salespeople use sales tactics to do their marketing. I suggest using marketing principles to do your selling. That’s why I refer to it as “marketing and sales.”

That may seem like a miniscule distinction, but if members of your sales force reverse the way they think and the sequence in which they go about their business, they’ll likely acquire new customers and sell more to existing ones.

I use the same process to determine my clients’ sales strategy as I do to develop their marketing strategy. It works like gangbusters! Following are a few things you can do to reverse-engineer the traditional sales process to increase your sales effectiveness.

• Situation analysis: Evaluate your own strengths and weaknesses. Steven Covey, author of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” preaches “sharpen the saw.” If you don’t take stock of your weak points, you won’t know what needs sharpening. According to Lao Tse, “He who knows others is learned … he who knows himself is wise.”
• Customer research: Find out how your customers feel about your inventory. What do they most value, and what would they change about your existing products and services. I use a very simple “start, stop, keep” line of questioning. I ask my best customers: What would you have me “start” doing for you that I’m not? And so on.
• Refresh your inventory: Based on customer preferences, make changes to your products and services (add, delete or enhance). If you have no control over the physical product you sell, change the way you position or promote the product to better align with customer values.
• Target selling: Just like target marketing, in sales you need to target specific prospects or accounts — sounds obvious, but if you examine how you allocate your resources (time, capital, collateral assets and technology), you may find that a minor modification would make a major difference.
• Objectives and milestones: In marketing, we plan, launch and track every initiative to determine what works best. You should do the same in sales — not by memory, by document. If it’s not written down there is no accountability. Establish measurable (quantifiable and dated) objectives, break them down to bite-size milestones, then track, measure, analyze and adjust.

Put your entire sales program under a microscope; you may be surprised at what you see. Incorporate a marketing mentality as you refine your sales strategy and you’ll have more customers and less shelf.

Andrew Ballard, President of Marketing Solutions Inc. in Edmonds, develops brand leadership strategies for businesses and teaches strategic marketing through Edmonds Community College. He can be reached at 425-672-7218 or by e-mail to andrew@mktg-solutions.net.

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