Marketing Tactics a Salesperson Would Be Wise to Learn 3 -Mindset and Tools.

Marketing informs and attracts prospects to your company or products and services. Sales, on the other hand, works directly with prospects to reinforce the value of the company's solution to convert prospects into customers.

The marketing plan will look at the product, price, target, and where where it will be sold. Objectives will be set, a budget confirmed, marketing channels are chosen, and a plan is made for the campaigns the marketing team will follow. The sales plans will decide the sales process/playbook/script, the team structure, target market, and targets.

So they are different right? Have different processes and different plans and thought processes?

I think sales people can learn a lot from the marketing approach - the mindset, the plan, process and tools and implement for themselves, lets look at some key ideas.

• Campaigns

• Channels

• Tools & technology

Campaigns

Just the notion of a campaign may be a revolutionary idea to some sales people - I know it was to me. I used to grind away all year with the same plan, just a continuous process. The idea of campaigns helps us focus. Choose a focal point, a topic, group of prospects, a geo - something they all have in common and build a short campaign around that. It could be a month or a quarter. The benefits to thinking in terms of campaigns are that you possibly get to know a specific group of prospects, their industry, topics of interest to them much better. As you will have to do some research into the focus point - what they all have in common. This will help you immediately when you are connecting with them, but also later should you connect with other similar prospects. Campaigns also give you some discipline as you plan out your campaign, no matter how short, and think about deliverables and deadlines, and possibly how you are going to measure.

In advertising sales I used to have very simple monthly campaigns around a special feature appearing in a magazine - this did not always result in immediate bookings, though sometimes did, but it made a connection with my audience and they remembered it on later contacts and definitely lead to bookings way after the initial special feature. It also gives you an opportunity to experiment with new channels, measurement etc. And possibly reach out to fringe prospects, you would not normally dedicate time to but on this particular focal point (whatever that is) they become more relevant. Sometimes it is about great timing or luck. You can time things around when you think a topic is relevant but sometimes its just luck or prospects provide you with feedback suggesting it is a good idea but the best timing would be another time. Marketing at your company may provide you with many of these focuses or campaigns - but you should create your own too.

Channels

This is where I might sound like one of those writers that say a lot but not really offer much of value - "experiment with different channels but focus on the ones that work"! Marketers try lots of different channels nothing wrong with that, I am suggesting you do too but be sensible don't invest in a lot of unsure channels, experiment. There are some core channels relevant to you, I am suggesting you use those but not one exclusively. For me that would be voice calls (though less now), email and LinkedIn though I should experiment with twitter too. I need to invest a little time with that to see how I can do it best. The point is to be thinking of channels, experimenting with them and improving within channels - something that has taken a while for me to grasp. and also use the channels your prospects prefer, not necessarily the ones you are comfortable with.

Tools and Technology

CRM is a given for sales people, you should also have some kind of email automation tool that enable you to send out messages to your own prospects. You may want to focus efforts, as I do on real personal one-to-one emails but there is a place for automation. I have set up a sequence that goes out to cold prospects, those that I want to stay connected with but for one reason or another (budget, lack of interaction/interest level, timing, not the perfect match) I do not want to invest the resources into regular calls/personalized emails. There is only so much time in the day, and I have been very guilty of holding onto prospects for too long. Placing them in a cold list where you email them every month or quarter with the occasional follow up call is the best way to maintain contact. For many prospects it is timing, there would have been interest at one stage, it may have been timing or budget that meant there was no subsequent business - but things can change. Don't lose that prospect entirely but also don't invest time you have not got - set up an automated email, with some good content to do the work for you. There are lots of platforms out there, one I have been using is https://www.mixmax.com/. You probably should have your own blog site too, to post your thoughts, something simple, not to detract from your company just a personal blog site where you can show your thoughts and thinking on a topic, something simple set up on a wix.com account or wordpress.com

To help you write blog posts and develop content you can actually get some assistance from a tool called Jasper.ai which uses AI to help you generate blog post on a particular topic - it really is very good. You can use it to generate a draft post and then change it up as you like to make it more accurate or better reflect your audience.

For apps for services that help you schedule your social posts and post them you can use something like Buffer.com - this is not something I've used myself but it is something that I am looking at as I find keeping up the discipline to post regularly is difficult. Buffer I believe allows you not only to schedule posts but analyze what is working and alerting you to engagements.

These are just a few of the tools that marketing use that I believe work well for sales - some essentials to help produce content and distribute via email and social channels.

Its not just about tools though, its thinking like another professional, a marketer that will help you develop fresh perspectives, new approaches and differentiate you from other sellers in the eyes of the prospects. You still have to deliver value to them, but you have to get noticed first - doesn't that sound like a little like marketing!