Using sales reps as a form of marketing

Marketing and sales are often combined to meaning the same thing; however, they are two totally different strategies. The best part of marketing is that you can use sales reps as a form of marketing. Sales representatives know more about each product than anyone else in the company. They are the considered the face of your company. It is their job to boots up revenue for the company. However, they can't go about gaining sales if marketing didn't go hand in hand.

Communication between sales and marketing
Typically the two departments work closely together. The Marketing department is in charge of finding the customer and sending them to the Sales department. The Sales department is in charge of "closing the deal". Problems can arise quickly between the two departments. If the Marketing Department is not producing good customer leads, it is hard for the Sales Department to generate revenue from them. Below are a few things both departments can do to help bridge the gap:

• Define what a good lead or customer is to both departments
• - Set up procedures on referrals
• - Discuss what marketing efforts are being done with the sales team so they know how busy or slow they will be
• - Run reports to find out when the best sales month was for the last quarter and evaluate why that was
• - Ask the Sales Team what they feel needs to be improved on
• - Ask the Marketing Team what they feel needs to be improved on
• - Set up proper communication procedures between the two departments

Using the Sales Reps Sales Reps are one of the biggest marketing tools out there. As we said before, they know the products better than anyone else at the company. Sending the sales reps out there for a marketing promotion is a great tool. They can help to spread the word about your products and leave a "bug" in potential customer's ears. Sales reps don't have to send out flash materials to gain the attention of customer's, their marketing is all in their presence.

Have you ever identified a good sales rep with a product? Having a bad experience with a sales rep can sway customers away from products. This is why so many people hate telemarketing. The telephone sales rep cannot meet the customer face to face and take the time to really convince them why your product or service is the best. Instead, telemarketers read from a script and push a sale on their customers to the point that a lot of customers become bothered.

Sales Reps need to have the full support of the marketing department in order to be successful. The marketing department should draw up a strategy they want to be said about an upcoming promotion and leave it up to the sales rep to properly deliver the message. It isn't always easy to find someone who is the "best" sales rep out there, but with a little coaching from the marketing team, they can learn how to become the face of the company.

Having a promotional product the sales rep can use for demonstration is also a great tool. It's hard to sell a product without some physical evidence, whether that be the actual product or a flyer. Sit down with the sales reps and discuss what works the best for them and work it into your marketing budget.

All in all, sales and marketing can help each other tremendously, they just need to have good communication and stop trying to compete with each other. Teamwork is essential just like it is to any company. The goal in the end it to increase customer satisfaction while boosting profits and keeping a happy staff!

More Marketing and Sales Info Articles:

• Step up your marketing plan
• Simple ways to turn onetime customers into regular ones
• Setting marketing objectives you can reach
• Scheduling marketing activities
• Registering with net directories
• Recording your marketing approach
• Putting together a marketing team with a range of skills
• Public relations and marketing
• Profiling your target market
• Point of sale marketing