Marketing the anchor for sales

​​An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, used to connect a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. Marketing is the anchor, some people may see it as a small part of the ship, when in fact it is the only thing that during calm or stormy waters connects the company to the most important aspect, the clients. When you start with what’s at stake for the buyer, you earn the right to their attention. Well-designed marketing is a heavy anchor that ensures stability, for marketing is the backbone of all sales.

Let me explain, I am sure you are aware of the fact that the way we buy products and services has fundamentally changed forever. With more information available than ever before we now research every single purchase and there are more and more of the transactions taking place online. This has led some to recent figures being published of varying stats but in general somewhere between 70-80% of the buying process takes place before sales gets involved. Meaning that if your content and marketing as a whole is poor you will be losing potential sales you never even knew about. Maybe you didn’t display pricing or maybe you didn’t address a particular question they had and a competitor did? Either way your digital presence and the experience you provide before during and after sales are going to make further digital footprints by way of reviews, retention and good old word of mouth.

So where does this leave sales people and departments? Internal marketing teams should be looking to learn from sales people. The sales team has the relationship building skills and also gets to hear the heart of what your clients really desire and need from you. So if you’re stuck for content buy your sales manager a coffee and get him to talk about what’s going on out there. The opportunity for marketing companies and agencies is a simple one. Marketing now extends across a business as a horizontal line and not a vertical. Digital plays a part in marketing, PR, HR, pre-sales, during the sales process and in customer services and support.

Think about it where are complaints and requests for support made today? On Twitter or Facebook? Where is the hiring done? LinkedIn? Where is brand awareness done? YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram? So if you provide any kind of marketing, digital or through social media, now is the time to provide essential business strategy and support to your clients and become a key part of their daily decision making team. SEO is not something you do anymore. It’s what happens when you do everything else right.

Marketing is truly the anchor of all sales. Marketing decisions should form the broad parameters for sales force decisions and actions. In a very real sense, marketing is the architect and sales can be seen as the builder. The sales force will do a far better job if marketing has done a good job. Sales should not be shy to push marketing to live up to its, they should communicate often and through IMC have an integrated broad approach to doing business with one message.

After all, marketing and sales are in the competitive battle together. People don't buy for logical reasons. They buy for emotional reasons. The success of this connection will lie in the level of marketing and sales collaboration towards a remembered brand. . “Our jobs as marketers are to understand how the customer wants to buy and help them do so.” – Bryan Eisenberg