Let's first talk about how most companies and sales and marketing organizations screw this up. A politically incorrect but nevertheless truthful analysis of what's going on out there.

1) Most sales people spend 90% of their time in the first and second phase, wasting their valuable time and your resources. The first and second phases should be automated as much as possible. Phase One and Phase Two can run on autopilot, in almost any business. This frees the sales person to spend his or her time selling instead of chasing non-buying prospects. And unless you're selling something really expensive and extremely complicated, phase three can often run on autopilot, too. Now you can go 100 mph. Phase three and especially phase four are where most people would start to differentiate marketing from sales. However, I want to make a large distinction between marketing and advertising.

Advertising is something you can do if you are IBM, Coca Cola, or Nike. Advertising helps build and maintain brand awareness. However, you must understand that this type of advertising is very expensive. For a small to medium sized company, this type of advertising is a huge waste of time and more importantly - money.

For small and medium sized companies, marketing should be defined as "salesmanship in print". You need to be able to test the results of your marketing, and know what your costs are. For every dollar you spend on marketing, you need to know what return you receive for that dollar in terms of leads, revenue and/or profit. If you cannot measure your return in this manner, then you are wasting your money.

2) Problem/Product Gap: Many people feel that the game has changed over the past ten to twenty years. Mostly, these are sales and business people under forty who were raised in the era of order taking, especially in the technology marketplace. In the 1980's, the PC was born, and most companies were clamouring for them. Many marketing and sales reps only had to sit by the phone and take orders, or show a customer that their PC's had more bells and whistles than the other PC at a little cheaper price, and they got the order. This practice carried through right into the 1990's. The same story was very true for software vendors also. The new PC's needed software that reached right down to the end user. This was a completely new group that needed to be empowered with new software tools.<

Advertising is something you can do if you are IBM, Coca Cola, or Nike. Advertising helps build and maintain brand awareness. However, you must understand that this type of advertising is very expensive. For a small to medium sized company, this type of advertising is a huge waste of time and more importantly - money.

For small and medium sized companies, marketing should be defined as "salesmanship in print". You need to be able to test the results of your marketing, and know what your costs are. For every dollar you spend on marketing, you need to know what return you receive for that dollar in terms of leads, revenue and/or profit. If you cannot measure your return in this manner, then you are wasting your money.

2) Problem/Product Gap: Many people feel that the game has changed over the past ten to twenty years. Mostly, these are sales and business people under forty who were raised in the era of order taking, especially in the technology marketplace. In the 1980's, the PC was born, and most companies were clamouring for them. Many marketing and sales reps only had to sit by the phone and take orders, or show a customer that their PC's had more bells and whistles than the other PC at a little cheaper price, and they got the order. This practice carried through right into the 1990's. The same story was very true for software vendors also. The new PC's needed software that reached right down to the end user. This was a completely new group that needed to be empowered with new software tools.

Advertising is something you can do if you are IBM, Coca Cola, or Nike. Advertising helps build and maintain brand awareness. However, you must understand that this type of advertising is very expensive. For a small to medium sized company, this type of advertising is a huge waste of time and more importantly - money.

For small and medium sized companies, marketing should be defined as "salesmanship in print". You need to be able to test the results of your marketing, and know what your costs are. For every dollar you spend on marketing, you need to know what return you receive for that dollar in terms of leads, revenue and/or profit. If you cannot measure your return in this manner, then you are wasting your money.

2) Problem/Product Gap: Many people feel that the game has changed over the past ten to twenty years. Mostly, these are sales and business people under forty who were raised in the era of order taking, especially in the technology marketplace. In the 1980's, the PC was born, and most companies were clamouring for them. Many marketing and sales reps only had to sit by the phone and take orders, or show a customer that their PC's had more bells and whistles than the other PC at a little cheaper price, and they got the order. This practice carried through right into the 1990's. The same story was very true for software vendors also. The new PC's needed software that reached right down to the end user. This was a completely new group that needed to be empowered with new software tools.