Marketing Spend: Ask the Tough Questions to Get the Best Results

July 11, 2020

Someone asked me to define the difference between sales and marketing – and I struggled to provide a clear and concise answer. The sales and marketing space is very complex!

With some time to think about this more, I see sales as being directly related to a transaction. At its most basic level, a salesperson identifies a potential lead, makes contact and follows a sales process to identify needs, provide a solution and overcome objections to get to a close. Marketing, among other things, can help to support that sales effort by establishing the brand, educating a prospect about the value proposition and encouraging them to want to find out more. When they work together, marketing can help identify more qualified leads for sales.

There are many marketing tools available for businesses. Some tools are more appropriate for branding – for example, a tire dealer may place a billboard ad on a busy street. The dealer realizes that the vast majority of the traffic may not need tires anytime soon, but they are hoping that if/when at least some of that traffic does need tires in the future, they will remember their brand and call them. Other tools are much more transaction-driven. For example, a pay per click ad campaign hits a potential prospect when they are searching for a particular type of product or service. If this tire dealer ran a PPC campaign, it would be safe to say that most of the clicks are from prospects who need tires.

ROI is an important consideration for all business owners when it comes to marketing spend. Too many times I work with businesses that are spending a fair bit of money on marketing without understanding objectives and defining what success should look like. When asked if something is working for them, they don’t always have an answer. That’s a shame – and a sure way to waste valuable time and resources.

Obviously, digital marketing provides the most transparent ROI because clicks are easily calculated – but how do you calculate a return for more traditional forms of advertising – for example, a trade show? It boils down to being strategic with every part of your sales and marketing effort. There is a cost (and usually quite a big cost!) to participate in a trade show. If you are going to make that expenditure, think about what you want to get for it. Perhaps it can’t be tied directly to additional sales dollars – but you could probably tie it to the number of key contacts that you want to meet and set up calls in the weeks following that trade show. The trade show expense is then tied to a certain number of leads or meetings. This helps to ensure you have a metric to be able to evaluate if the expense was worth it.

My advice: Don’t get too comfortable with your current marketing plan. Ask the tough questions each year as you put your budget together – what did we get for our efforts last year? Was it worth it? Is this the best use of our resources?

Got questions about your marketing budget? Check out my website and contact me to discuss it in more detail – www.rikelyconsulting.com