My son asked me the other day, “Daddy, what happens when you run out of people to call?” What a great question for a 15 year old to be asking…this is the problem every sales person has at some point in their career. That’s what marketing is for! But how many companies really have their act together when it comes to marketing? In most cases it is up to the sales person to generate new interest – it would be great if marketing and sales would get together on this…
There are three primary platforms for marketing consultative and high-tech solutions; customer events, one-on-one seminars, and social media. But using any one of these platforms for something other than education builds distrust with the prospects you call on. In other words, effective marketing (in B to B high tech sales) must be founded on education, not hype.
Its through this well-thought-out process that a continuous stream of new names will continue to come through your office giving you a growing source of new people to call.
While I have you here – I wanted to point out that the pizza on the left is one of the best homemade pizzas I’ve ever had! This one comes from the Charlotte North Carolina area where the average pizza consumer is happy with Pizza Hut…however, if you’ve been following my pizza posts from all around the world, you know that I hate Pizza Hut. Christine, one of nieces, was kind enough to make me this pizza last night since my family was traveling (meaning all of the cooks where out). Thanks Christine, it was a real treat!
© David Stelzl
High Tech Business Growth 
Honestly gob smacked your 15 year old called you Daddy, my 12 year old has been too cool to call me mummy for ages, I am Mum or a grunt! Putting that aside, I really couldn’t agree more, sales and marketing should work closer together. I have a solution for you but you may not like it! Take a huge pay cut, work for a very small company and become the entire sales and marketing department. OK so you have a very limited budget but at least you get synergy, well I would hope you do, as if you don’t that means you have ended up arguing with yourself as to which direction to go in! So in a nutshell you have my whimsical comments for the evening, I will now bow out and leave the area free for the sensible posts. PS the pizza really does look yummy!
Thanks Jules – I didn’t even think about the father son relationship thing, but I have to say homeschooling has helped maintain a closer rapport with the kids than the average. On the marketing and selling side, your comments are well received – there is an advantage to the smaller company. I know several larger companies that control what their sale people do to the point of disabling creative sales tactics. This is a big mistake, but very common.