Marketing and Sales
 

Marketing and Sales

Which came first, the Chicken or the Egg? This is an old saying that symbolizes the question of what's the difference between Marketing and Sales. The roles of Marketing and Sales and the relationship between the two are often misunderstood or overlooked during the day to day activities of an on-going business and even more so in a distressed, transitional or rapid growth company. It is important to understand that each has a function that is distinct (sometimes adversarial) and yet dependent on each other, and both must contribute to higher margins, greater bottom line results and to the overall success of any business.

The sales function when properly managed is an outwardly focused, tactical strike team, whose main objective is to close the sale and provide excellent customer service.

The marketing function is responsible for the demographic research leading to the strategic planning that determines which market segments will Maximize higher margin sales. This research function is also critical in the successful development and profitable introduction of new products. The marketing department must also provide the sales team with clearly defined market segments/industries to sell into, plus communication tools that will be used in the selling effort.

Distressed, in transition and rapidly growing businesses often confuse these functions, resulting in poor sales, low margin sales or missed market opportunities.

Even in a well managed, profitable business it is often difficult to objectively judge the performance and profit contribution of either sales or marketing. In a distressed, transitional or rapid growth business it is easy to point to the lack of sales as non-performance by the sales group and to forget that tactical problems may require a change in marketing direction and initiatives.

At Maximize Management we have the experience to provide an objective and impartial assessment. We can help develop the plan that will accelerate the profitability process.

Expect Results...

** Brought into a custom product development project that was heading for disaster due to lack of management and the conflicting product direction taken by hardware development and software development. Three months had been wasted because of a lack of product marketing guidance. With well defined product requirements, specifications and realistic project timelines and budgets, the project was completed early, within budget and met the projected product cost.

** This privately held; eleven office; special medical services business had lost its entire market when the state government changed legislation. Through a quick market assessment, we targeted a new market for the physical infrastructure that existed and negotiated revised contracts with over 200 practitioners. After one year the surviving businesses new market had 146% revenue and 13% net profit compared to the previous business market which it had been in for over ten years. Ownership remained unchanged in this transaction.

Expect Results...

Turnaround management efforts saved a failing restaurant; Replaced $15k monthly losses with increased revenue and profits over a five month period by implementing more efficient operating systems, staff training and an effective marketing program.

 

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