Know-How Exchange : Career/Training

Sarah,

Sales and marketing are related, but dramatically different. Not understanding the difference makes a sales guy a lousy marketer and a marketer a lousy sales guy. Think of marketing as sociology - you look at the masses, average a bunch of stuff and personify the "typical" customer. You aim the company and sales force toward that "typical" customer so they will have the best probability of closing juicy bits of business in accord with the company's unique selling points and core competencies. But, that "typical" client is not a person and no one has ever met him. You've dabbled in customer service - that's closely related to sale, but not sales. In customer service, there's some sort of relationship already built before you go to work - good, bad, or indifferent. If marketing is sociology, sales is psychology. In sales, you deal with a person - one-to-one. It's about building rapport and trust and then understanding their pain points and where you can best solve these problems. In many cases, it's about having enough rapport and trust so that the person will say out loud these pain points that they have been avoiding - so they realize they need to do something to solve them. The wonderful literature marketers build for sales folks - they are just something for the sales people to hold in theirs hands - but not something that ever makes the sale. Think about it: How many things have you ever bought from a brochure? Know anyone who has? Very few, I'll bet. Sales is 99% about the person.

Sales management is about motivating sales people to sell to the right people. Sales people are all about the money. If they are not, you probably don't want them! Incentives have to be right to motivate them. You have to make it easier to sell the right stuff to the right people than it is to sell other things to other people. Anything that gets in the way of calling on customers to book orders is going to demotivate a sales person - think paperwork, reports...As a sales manager, your job is to remove all obstacles in the way of the sales guys calling on the right customers in the right ways and to develop long term motivation and goals to keep the sales guys going in doing that (monetary incentive programs or contests for trips - they work once. Maybe twice. But after that, they stop being incentive and end up being expected).

So, suggestions for your interview and preparing - think about these issues and figure out where they fit in your make-up and utilize them to ask questions and be prepared to answer questions on them.

I hope this helps.

Wayde

There are some good articles here about integrating marketing and sales at Go-To-Market Strategies.

https://www.gtms-inc.com/tips.htm

I think you could find some good insights on how to better position yourself as a sales manager, leveraging your marketing experience and understanding of what makes a successful sales manager.

They also have some excellent sales templates, including a WONDERFUL pipeline management tool here that will help you in your role as sales manager, as well as the sales process template. Mapping out our sales process saved me during a very transitional time in our group. The templates are here:

https://www.gtms-inc.com/salesandmarketingtemplates.htm

Good luck!