I continue to see blogs and social posts about the battle between sales and marketing. Some argue that sales should lead B2B organizations while others proclaim the end of the B2B sales person. I feel those posts are short sighted and too simplistic. The real question for organizations is what tactics help drive sales or new customers. Brand awareness, social media, outbound sales, and other tactics are really about generating revenue and users. The challenge with a lot of growing firms is where to focus their resources, both time and money. Complicating this further are service providers that are pitching marketing and sales services as competing interests. This of course, is usually reflected by which services that said company provides. As a growing firm there are many sales and marketing strategies and tactics you can use to increase revenue and customers.

Here are some of the things to think about as you make your decision around what your sales and marketing mix is.

Understand Your Customer’s Buying Process

The customer’s buying processes trumps your marketing and sales processes. As you look at your sales and marketing tactics understand the steps that your prospect goes through as they make their purchasing decision. Where do they find information? Create information and processes to support your customers buying journey.

Try Small Experiments

We are in a great time where there are many digital tactics available to growing firms. For many digital tactics you have the power to try small experiments yourself by adding content your site, social media, email marketing, and much more. Many of the tools are free or have a small price. In most cases the only cost is your time. There are also many outbound tactics related to sales or networking that you can do yourself. By measuring the results you can see what tactics are working for you.

What Do Your Competitors Do?

A great way to help determine your tactics is to look at what your competitors use. This is not foolproof, but is a great way to identify some of the tactics. With a little bit of research you can also see how the tactics are working. Are your competitors at networking events, are their blogs getting comments or shares, are their social feeds active, and what is their mix of sales and marketing team members?

What Can You Afford?

There are many sales and marketing tactics that are affordable and many that are more expensive. TV ads or an experienced sales team member can be very expensive. Can your business afford the resource in the short term? Can you get an ROI from that resource in the long term? In many cases the economics of your solution will help drive the tactics that are available to you.

What is Sustainable?

At the start of your business, you may need to do things that are unnatural so you can acquire your early customers. This could mean a big cold calling campaign or outbound effort. In the long term these activities may not be sustainable or scalable for your solution. It is important to keep measuring your ROI and planning for the short term and medium term.

A Mix of Tactics Works Best

There is no one right tactic; you will find a mix of tactics. That will likely mean some sales and marketing will be used. Find the tactics that work for you, keep measuring them, and keep an eye on new tactics and tools. At the end of the day, for most B2B companies sales and marketing will work together to drive revenue and new users.

VA Partners offers both sales and marketing services. If you need some help trying to figure-out the right mix for your organization, contact me for a free consultation. If we are not the best fit, we will recommend other organizations to help you out.