Marketing is an interesting game. It relies on using strategy and tactics to create business demand, product road maps and brand awareness. Yet, despite these lofty goals and ambitions, Marketing is often measured by the success of the Sales department. After all, if the product isn't moving, well it's because the Marketing isn't any good. Right?
Whether it is a lack of brand awareness, or a lack of appropriate supporting tools, or a lack of new leads, Marketing is about ensuring your reps, or your channels, have the tools they need to succeed. In this day of Marketing transparency via new-fangled Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), it still comes down to revenue generated.
So here is the point. Are your sales and channel representatives having the success they need? If they're not, I'll bet it comes down to product education. In other words - all of the strategies and tactics in the world mean nothing if they simply do not understand the product and how to sell it.
Who owns the training of key people within the company? Is it Marketing? Or should the reps be responsible enough to take what you give them and train themselves. My experience is that they are well paid. Typically far better paid than almost any other employee. So why shouldn't they own that responsibility. Between you and I, I think they should and any excuse to not own it is an abdication of their own responsibility to the company, their professional peers and the shareholders. However, real life isn't always fair and it doesn't always work that way. In the real world, it is usually the job of Marketing to train the sales force. So you have to ask yourself the question; are my reps trained sufficiently so that they can deliver the content?
Training is really just a level deeper than the knowledge and content created to create demand and to attempt to close sales. It puts the words in the mouth of the reps which support the tools and the visuals behind the brand and the sales tools. It starts with simple things, like speaker notes on presentations, or lists of frequently asked questions. It goes on to qualifying scripts for inside sales or telemarketers where you create value-based questions that seek responses which qualifies a prospects pain. It gets more sophisticated with things like value-based calculators that document the value you can deliver based on the competitive differentiators of your product. And to do that you need to know what those competitive differentiators are. And you don't guess at them. You ask your customers. You ask your prospects. And you especially ask after you lose. It's amazing what people will tell you when you ask.
I, like most Marketers, dislike having to train the Sales channels. However, I also realize it is the Achilles heal of almost every Marketer out there.
How effective are your Marketing campaigns and Sales tools? If they're not what you'd hoped for, in other words the revenue isn't matching your expectations, then you should evaluate your training programs. Whether you like it or not.
Whether it is a lack of brand awareness, or a lack of appropriate supporting tools, or a lack of new leads, Marketing is about ensuring your reps, or your channels, have the tools they need to succeed. In this day of Marketing transparency via new-fangled Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), it still comes down to revenue generated.
So here is the point. Are your sales and channel representatives having the success they need? If they're not, I'll bet it comes down to product education. In other words - all of the strategies and tactics in the world mean nothing if they simply do not understand the product and how to sell it.
Who owns the training of key people within the company? Is it Marketing? Or should the reps be responsible enough to take what you give them and train themselves. My experience is that they are well paid. Typically far better paid than almost any other employee. So why shouldn't they own that responsibility. Between you and I, I think they should and any excuse to not own it is an abdication of their own responsibility to the company, their professional peers and the shareholders. However, real life isn't always fair and it doesn't always work that way. In the real world, it is usually the job of Marketing to train the sales force. So you have to ask yourself the question; are my reps trained sufficiently so that they can deliver the content?
Training is really just a level deeper than the knowledge and content created to create demand and to attempt to close sales. It puts the words in the mouth of the reps which support the tools and the visuals behind the brand and the sales tools. It starts with simple things, like speaker notes on presentations, or lists of frequently asked questions. It goes on to qualifying scripts for inside sales or telemarketers where you create value-based questions that seek responses which qualifies a prospects pain. It gets more sophisticated with things like value-based calculators that document the value you can deliver based on the competitive differentiators of your product. And to do that you need to know what those competitive differentiators are. And you don't guess at them. You ask your customers. You ask your prospects. And you especially ask after you lose. It's amazing what people will tell you when you ask.
I, like most Marketers, dislike having to train the Sales channels. However, I also realize it is the Achilles heal of almost every Marketer out there.
How effective are your Marketing campaigns and Sales tools? If they're not what you'd hoped for, in other words the revenue isn't matching your expectations, then you should evaluate your training programs. Whether you like it or not.
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