Question

Topic: Just for Fun

'marketing For Dummies' - Sales Presentation

Posted by Anonymous on 3/22/2007 at 8:56 PM ET 250 Points
I hope the title is going to bring a smile among those dealing with a very demanding sales team, who’s only concern spins around $$$ commissions.

A bit of background about the event: a ‘kick-off’ presentation at the beginning of the new financial year, when the new revenue targets are going to be announced. Our role, as a marketing team, would be to explain how we’re going to help Sales to achieve them. And great news, it’s not about a pp presentation with fancy marketing terms, it’s a 5mins video material that will try to enlighten the audience (represented by sales/operations) about our contribution to the bottom line results.
We brainstormed a couple of ideas, we would like to keep it short and sweet so they could remember our key messages.

About the challenge, how are we going to put all our smart ideas into a visual material? We’re thinking of something funny such as ‘Borat’ or even ‘Desperate Housewives’..But how are we going to explain to Bree or Susanne the way our distribution models work, what differentiate our already complicated products, and how we plan to implement a lifecycle management approach?

Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated!

Best regards,
The Director 
To continue reading this question and the solution, sign up ... it's free!
SUBSCRIBE
Or, SIGN IN

RESPONSES

  • Posted by phil.wesel on 3/22/2007 at 9:12 PM Accepted
    Well I can only tell you that you are not alone....However I did do the following presentation once.... I liberally borrowed segments from movies such as Independence Day "such as the countdown sequence" where the one gentleman asks "and then what" and says "oh crap" as the oncoming fireball approaches his car. I also borrowed a segment from Braveheart where he harangs the soldiers to fight with his famous "Would you give it all up for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they can take our lives but they can never take our freedom" So if that gives you any ideas for your own youtube video, you are welcome to them.

    As I wrote this I also thought it would be funny to do a video skit loosely based on the "but I did stay in a Holiday Inn last night" perhaps "but I did spend last night out drinking with my buddies from marketing" or something of that sort. To me it is less about what sales sees as the value of marketing than what they don't see.

    Good luck with your efforts and some feedback. Perhaps you can post your video clip for us somewhere when you are done, just for fun.

    Phil
  • Posted by telemoxie on 3/23/2007 at 6:57 AM Accepted
    I do not know your industry or anything about your company, but something about your post isn't hitting me quite right, and so I'm going to play the role of the "typical sales guy" for a moment.

    1) if I'm a sales person, are you calling me a dummy? If that is your attitude, I have no interest in your presentation.

    2) I'm interested in results... and frankly, as a typical sales sales person, I believe you you more interested in "being creative" than in "being helpful". Having a "Borat" theme proves my point, not yours.

    3) You do not truly seem to be interested in results - in your second paragraph, you talk about "bottom line results" but then in the third paragraph you begin to lecture me on how we sell our products. If I'm a typical salesperson, I believe I have more practical knowledge than you about our products and distribution strategies.

    4) Please explain to me, by replying to this question, in simple terms, how your "plans to implement a lifecycle management approach" will translate into sales for me in Q1 or Q2 2007. I have no interest in marketing mumbo-jumbo. I need qualified leads, and effective marketing materials.

    5) As a typical sales person, I'm a "results oriented" guy. Again, I do not know your industry, but I'm assuming the only reason folks are in the audience is that they have met their goals, at least in part, last year. What did YOU do last year?

    My concern as a "typical sales guy" is that you are much too concerned about making funny "Borat" videos or creative takeoffs on "Desperate Housewives" to do anything which can help me. As a "typical sales guy" (of course, you and I have not met, please don't take this personally) I feel you are overhead, and allocating resources in the wrong places.

    If you want to impress me, find an example, ANY EXAMPLE, of where Marketing helped Sales find and close business LAST YEAR. If you have a presentation like, "here is what we did last year. These were some of the tangible results. Here is how we are expanding that program this year. Here is how you will benefit". This will get my attention.

    Your first line of your question seems to indicate that you understand my perspectives. As a typical sales guy, I only care about commissions - not about Borat or Desperate Housewives.
  • Posted on 3/23/2007 at 9:37 AM Member
    Wow, TeleMoxie makes some very valid points and hits home on the typical salesguy's self interest.

    With that, perhaps you should title your presentation - Increasing sales xx% by better utilizing Marketing Tools.

    Then prepare a "Toolbox / Tool Kit" of best practices and winning case studies - that you can pass out and review.

    It might be a bit boring, but you will have equipped them with better tools and a goto resource.

    Good Luck - see my profile to email me
  • Posted by phil.wesel on 3/23/2007 at 10:51 AM Member
    Well I guess I must diveback in for a couple of reasons. Telemoxie's own profile seems to indicate that sometimes there is a longer term set of objectives for both sales, marketing, and the ultimate stakeholders of a firm, it's customers. So as a devil's advocate back

    If the sales guy is only interested in Q1 and Q2 2007 sales opportunities and commissions, he may already have tuned out regarding the rest of the organization.

    Marketing exists to provide the short term collateral to make plan absolutely but it also exists to continually bring back the focus to the customer. I would tell my sales buddy that I am not going to help him meet his Q1 and Q2 objectives but with the right kinds of tools, brand building and focus, we'll have the opportunity and the right to double Q3 and Q4 numbers.

    Remember that naggling little defect that engineering said they couldn't fix and that one of your largest customers is complaining about. We'll figure out how to get that resourced internally or externally to make it work.

    Remember the new product request that has been lingering in the background for the last two years, we can get a third party solution within 4 months and have it available late Q3 and Q4. Whatever marketing promotes or promises it must in some way and shape be able to deliver.

    I've sold things all my life and nothing is more satisfying than knowing that all my customers got a fair shake and were able to make money based upon the things I sold them and the way they were able to use them.

    I really like the SMART idea especially if sales and marketing work together to make it a reality. I see no reason why a presentation regarding what kinds of value marketing can offer sales can't be fun or funny or a little unintentionally conflict generating as long as it is effective and does promote the communication needed to move your business forward.

    I learned a lot from Conrad's post and from Telemoxies post as well. We should begin by understanding what we (marketing sales engineering logistics) have in common not perhaps by engaging in name calling across departmental fences.
  • Posted by Tracey on 3/23/2007 at 12:10 PM Member
    I agree with Telemoxie... focus on how marketing helps sales make money. At my last company, we showed how much money each person brought in through marketing campaigns. We also showed how much money was sitting as "untouched" marketing leads (ie, open marketing campaigns that were never vetted). This helped give the salespeople a feeling of competition with each other. That might not work for every team (it might put them on the defensive), but it worked with ours. Showing the unvetted campaigns also alerted management to how much more sales could be done, even though we were in a slow market for our industry.
  • Posted by telemoxie on 3/26/2007 at 6:23 AM Member
    As good old William Shakespeare said: "All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts..."

    In my post above, I "played the part" of a short-sighted salesperson. Certainly most everyone on this forum knows the importance of a long-term perspective to an organizations's growth and success... and certainly information flows are critical to marketing working with sales... and certainly a bit of creativity in the delivery of that message can help deliver marketing's message to sales in an effective and memorable way...

    But reading between the lines a bit, I had felt the "short sighted sales" perspective might be helpful to keep in mind as you plan your presentation, and so I played that role for a moment. I hope my comments helped a bit. Good luck with your presentation, and do us a favor - after the presentation, come back and let us know how it worked out.
  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 3/28/2007 at 11:24 AM Member
    Let's just go back to the forum and the reason for the event:

    The sales people are going to be "told their revenue targets"...

    In my experience, they don't usually like the numbers, so the support firepower you are giving them had better be convincing.

    Keep all sharp objects away from the less confident sales people. Sometimes team-members can become suicidal when faced with a target that looks like Everest.

    I'd be looking to explain the whole-of-business strategy to them, not just the marketing support for sales. Often it's not about getting the leads, it's about the sales person thinking the rest of the company is doing their best to turn the customer off, after the order has been taken. The sales battle has been won, but often the company still loses the war, because of bad service, product quality, or logistics problems.

    Do you know what the sales people think the company's chief problems are? Has the marketing and overall business strategy addressed all those issues? Are you sure the sales people will believe in it?

    If so, you don't need to use creative devices like Desperate Housewives or Borat. Just tell the story well and give examples of how it all will work, and then ask questions in front of an open bar or over dinner, and you should enjoy a warm response.

    Good luck.

    ChrisB


BACK TO TOP

Post a Comment

Related Discussions

Community Info

Top 25 Experts
(Just for Fun)