Question

Topic: Other

Marketing First Or Sales First

Posted by Anonymous on 11/17/2004 at 12:10 AM ET 250 Points
I am a new Dir. of Sales & Marketing for a small start-up service company. I am the only full-time employee and there are 2 part-time employees with responsibilities in other areas. My dilemma is trying to determine how much time to spend on each. For the last 30 days, I've focused my efforts on generating leads by making cold calls and attending events. We have a very small marketing budget and I'm not sure if I should continue to spend more time on sales or start implementing our marketing campaign.

Any suggestions?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 11/17/2004 at 1:46 AM Accepted
    Depends on how you are financially and whether you have sales already.

    For a true startup, I am going to go counter to what I suspect a lot of people will say, but sales first (and not just leads, but get sales). For a startup at the very beginning, getting some cash flow is very important, hence I say sales. Also, make sure the customers are referencable.

    If you have sales already and a decent cash flow, then working a bit more longer term by spending some time on marketing would be in order.
  • Posted on 11/17/2004 at 5:21 AM Member
    How are you going to get sales without doing some basic marketing? Even a simple brochures or a script for your cold calls is marketing. If you are under pressure to get sales, you may not implement your full marketing plan now, but you will need to do some marketing and then build on it in the future. Beware of "just sales"--it could come back to haunt you in the future.
  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 11/17/2004 at 2:41 PM Member
    Agreeing with all who suggested sales first with supporting reasoning. Also, suggest you keep in mind each sales call (phone, email or in-person) is an opportunity to learn more about your target audience. Ask plenty of questions (without blowing the sale), discover as much about their behavior and thought process as you can without putting them off. These sales events are the research phase of your marketing – there is plenty to learn to help build sales tools and marketing strategy.

    Best of luck,

    - Steve
  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 11/17/2004 at 7:06 PM Member
    Yes, I missed a step which Ricky pointed out - even though you focus on sales, there will be some marketing needed (such as brochures, etc.). Just don't focus too much on these - get the basics good enough and then focus on sales.
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