Diet & Exercise for Sales & Marketing
Not too long ago I had to commute between New Hampshire and metropolitan Boston every day. That route to the office didn’t have any good public transportation options and I was left with driving there. Without traffic it was a 45 minute drive. But, of course, that rarely ever happened. It would usually take an hour and 15 minutes. Once, thanks to traffic and weather, it took three hours.
Instead of listening to morning DJ’s whom I couldn't care less about I listened to podcasts. One was the Adam Carolla Show. I listened to quite a few of episodes. I’m borrowing the idea for this post (hopefully not stealing it) from Adam Carolla.
He has a number of different theories about things that he applies to other aspects of life. One common theory he talks about all the time is diet and exercise, diet here meaning what you eat not any specific regimen. If you are trying to lose weight it can be reduced to two things: diet and exercise. That’s it. All the questions, important ones like types of food and exercise for example, are just details under those two. At the end of the day, if you want to lose weight, it’s about diet and exercise. It’s that simple. He constantly applies that theory to a number of other subjects.
I believe that it can and should be applied to your organization’s sales (fundraising for nonprofits) and marketing (outreach) efforts. My personal “diet and exercise” boils down to three things: value, engagement and problem-solving.
Value. What is your value? What is it for your customers? What is it for people and organizations who engage with you other than your customers?
That value has to guide all your sales and marketing efforts and be a part of everything you do. Without that you will find it much, much harder to reach your customers and the world successfully.
Engagement. How are you reaching out to people with your value and engaging them? I say engagement because it’s not one-way shouting your message. It’s conversation, participation and discussion.
Look at your organization’s engagement. Are you simply shouting about your products and services and new hires? Are you a part of a larger world and participating in that world or are you stuck in the corner on a soapbox? Are you listening to what your customers, your market and the world around you are saying?
Problem-solving. Does your value solve a problem? Can we see that? Do you solve problems with your sales and marketing efforts? Not your problems but other peoples problems. Your customers’ of course. But in a broader sense can you solve problems for anyone that engages with you.
Is your marketing about how cool you are and all the great technology of your products or is it about how you can solve people’s problems and serve their needs? Is your sales process one that tries to throw whatever it can at a customer to get him/her to close or are you helping your customer with his/her problems and needs at every stage.
The rest is just the details. Content strategy, inbound marketing, sales pipeline, social media, helpdesk...all of it. They are just smaller parts that go into value, engagement and problem solving. Understand those three first. Then use that understanding as the basis of everything else you do. The rest will then fall into place and you will have set up a much better chance at growth through your sales and marketing.
