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what is it? If a marketing campaign is like a marathon, then the “last mile” is the interface between your people and the public. A brilliant advertising campaign, compelling call-to-action and a fantastic price-point won’t help if your people don’t know how to describe the program, close the sale, ring it up and plant the right seeds for ongoing customer satisfaction. And yet this is an area where many organizations leave their marketing know-how at the door and just “make do” with whatever methodology costs the least and happens the quickest. A quick “promo sheet” emailed to all store managers, a hurried set of retail codes and an admonition to “keep your eye on the ball” is all that some salespeople get from the corporate marketing department. All the marketing concepts and processes we use to communicate with our customers need to be presented to employees in such a way as to maximize their impact at the point of sale. That’s where the rubber meets the road. And if you haven’t prepared your salespeople properly, the best marketing in the world will fall shy of the mark. what does it involve? That really depends on your industry, company and culture. If you have a product-oriented, retail business, marketing training can help your employees understand how and why the overall “brand strategy” helps them with each individual sale. Appropriate sales materials can make the process smooth and manageable, rather than cumbersome and irritating (to them and to customers). If you’ve with a professional services firm, marketing training might take the form of “professional development” training. Helping your people understand how to take a very long, very nebulous sales process and add value at every step. Teaching them how to cross-sell. Providing lists of simple, step-by-step behaviors that can lead, over time, to sales-ready relationships. Heck, some organizations even need to provide business etiquette training to new associates to make sure they know the difference between “business casual” and “way too casual.” why do it? The whole point of marketing is to make good things happen. When your employees understand how they fit into the picture, they’ll be more likely to do just that. If they don’t understand the meaning behind the campaign, it won’t resonate with them and they won’t be able to communicate it to their prospects. If they don’t know why a service bundle has been designed a certain way, they can’t make a reasonable case for its purchase. It’s a simple fact of commerce -- people do better when they understand the environment. Your company’s marketing is a huge element in the environment of your employees. When they function smoothly within that element, all the marketing programs have a place in their activities. If they are confused or apathetic about your programs, they won’t be able to perform as well. why do it with sanestorm? We understand and like salespeople. They are, in many cases, the internal customer of marketing. They way we know the marketing is working is when our salespeople are happy. When they complain, we need to make changes. Your people deserve to understand what’s going on in their company’s marketing department. Every employee is, to some degree, a salesperson. They all have family, friends and neighbors who will come to them as “insiders” and “experts” on your organization. If you don’t help them understand the reasons behind your business decisions, they can’t communicate them. Our internal marketing programs are closely linked to this idea, too. Wherever there is a hand-off of information, time, money, resources or content, there is a place for good marketing. Training your people to be effective ambassadors for your company is a great investment. |
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marketing and