Scared of human contact…

So, Sales is Sales and Marketing is seen on the one hand as separate to Sales and on the other hand totally linked to Sales.

But….

Sales people, we imagine are the stereotypical pushy, not listening, dodgy wheeler-dealer Del Boy or the smooth and smarmy, suited and booted, selling anything to anyone with only the ££ flashing in their eyes.

Marketing people we imagine are hanging out, creatively thinking up witty one liners, spending hours behind their Mac with cool music playing to enable them to have free thought to produce the magic that sells brands and vision.

Reality, businesses are often running at 100%, reacting to delivery, managing accounts, putting out fires and wondering at the end of the day, where did the last 10 hours go.

The serious business of any business owner actually sitting down to plan the daunting task of managing a sales pipe line (especially if it is cold) and driving a strong and affordable marketing strategy which can be measured against sales (really???) – seems to be as elusive as a cuddle from the Virgin Mary.

Moving onto the even more “shrouded in expensive methodology” SEO planning and the like – well we may as well book onto that course to learn Mandarin.

Every morning I wake up and I am bombarded with messaging from social media. I know I read some of it and you tend to scan to find relevant things relating to your own life or business activities. These channels are used to raise awareness or promote what they are doing on a grand scale. It’s a bit like trying to catch rain or fly fishing in the pacific.

The thing is there are so many people on social media and so much noise that these messages get diluted. It is a form of prospecting but without the 1:1 connection.  People need people, we like to feel special, understood and valued.

Then there is networking, where you actually meet people and talk. People buy from people so the physical social engagement is a very important aspect of what we do I hope you all agree.

So what I don’t understand with all this activity, all of these options to make the Sale easier, to make Marketing more direct the one questions is: are we substituting this for the old school techniques of talking face 2 face?

• Did you know that over 80% of people that visit your website will never contact you
• 80% of sales are closed on the 5^th – 12^th contact.

So all this activity to drive people to actually make the effort to come and find you yet they will not contact you. Lots of reasoning behind that but we are still fishing.

So, if you followed up all of the people that had made the effort to seek you out (they have a need) and you spoke to them face 2 face and you listened to what they wanted and you offered them a solution, could you turn a lot of activity into orders?

Reverts back to being in the right place at the right time.

Then all the activity you set out to generate in the first place would make sense.

The problem is most people are great and generating activity but not great at measuring the results. This is the historic gap between sales and marketing. The art of good sales and marketing strategy is to join the functions up seamlessly this has always seemed impossible but now there intelligent and affordable tools and techniques to make this happen.

That is where we come in, Reach Communications helps companies to turn marketing activity into appointments and sales for the B2B sector. Contact us to find out more!

Late For Work!

So Lisa came for an interview, this was back in ooh September 2013 now.  Reach had moved out of the kitchen and I rented an office in a posh Regus – it was great, we didn’t have any windows or employees but it had a proper desk and no cat to get in the way.

Lisa arrived, all purple hair and piercings but quietly demur and strangely conservative if you looked past the rings in her lip (sorry Lis x!!).  Am bringing Lisa into this as she has been laughing at me over the desk divider for long enough.  Coming in as a temp to perm, Lisa hit perm in Jan 14 and has propped me up (and occasionally dropped me in it) and is generally fab to work with.  The funny thing now is that she is our client manager and so clients clearly build up this vision of helpful, intelligent and capable persona and when they come into the office they clearly have a little step back! Anyway, we are all different, we are all unique and expression is all part of vision and passion.

Let’s face it, you can’t make 100 calls a day and not be passionate, you need edge!  She has many talents, one of which is being able to sing (which I can’t, so my daughter tells me and to anyone who will listen) and she has managed to find over 5000 followers on twitter – think she should be writing this!

So, She (aka Lisa) rang in today, car won’t start – that old chestnut.  So have called her to say that under no circumstances yet can we justify a company car so hurry up and get in.  Which leads me to ask another age old question, to be flexible or not in the work force? I think that this is so key to all of us.  We need that flexibility for life’s random events and we all need support when things go wrong and are out of our control.  It is a difficult act to balance when you have a small team and clients on day rates, how to manage them, what to shift around and when to be upfront about the challenges that come in each day.

Providing a service that is relied upon by your clients means that the decision to come clean when the vision of the duck gliding calmly on the water is counter acted with the feet paddling so hard under the water that a mini tsunami has been created in the duck pond, is essential!

Honesty and integrity I think are the answer.  Also, understanding on all parties.

So, back to windows, our goal back in 2013 was to get windows, not just internal glass windows (that was move 2) but proper opening windows that allowed sunshine in and the ability to daydream at the rugby players working out across the road…… goals, it’s all about goals.

We are now proud to boast a wonderful selection of windows that all open, function as they should and allow us to enjoy the pleasures of the weather outside.  With this growth, which we believe has be borne through hard graft, a stroke of luck, the integrity of people in our team that are valued and a lot of paddling.  We look forward to more goals – perhaps Lisa, this could be company cars who knows? Let’s be innovative build our vision together.

Now, where is Lisa???