Tom Peters writes on the "Marketing Prof's Daily Fix" about the age-old battle between marketing and sales. He quotes Robert Lewis Stevenson, "Everyone lives by selling something."
While I wouldn't go as far as Tom does in putting down marketing, the old saying, "Nothing happens until somebody sells something" is still true today. In spite of all the MBA's, in spite of the thousands of books that have been written about marketing, in spite of the gazillion pieces of data we have to analyze, the bottom line is that somebody still has to get the customer's head nodding up and down, rather than from side to side.
I recently visited the owner of a very successful retail operation. What's his biggest concern? Nobody on the floor is asking for the sale. His stores are beautiful. He has a nice selection of products. He spends thousands of dollars on advertising to get the prospects into his stores and his "sales" people are letting them walk.
It's like going to a doctor who takes your temperature, tests your blood, does x-rays and cat scans and MRI's. Then, when he spots a tumor, he thanks you for coming in and says he hopes you'll come back soon. He's not taking care of his customer's needs. Hopefully, we're taking care of ours.
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