Morning All…
As I went for my morning walk with my housemate Kim this morning… we were talking about a whole array of tough political, game changing, worldly topics. One of the topics was “scrambled eggs should never be served sans toast”... come on it was 6am after all! What did you expect?
Our theory on scrambled eggs with no toast is that it may do what it needs to do initially, but with out a doubt an hour and a half later you are absolutely ravenous again… at which point we gorge on food that possibly isn’t the best for us… see pic!
So by simply adding a slice (or two) of toast with our morning scrambled eggs… we can go through to lunch and not feel the need to binge on high sugar, high fat yet delicious and scrumptious snacks… At this point I felt the need to take it that step further and compare it to marketing without selling….
You see, I come across so many well meaning, enthusiastic business leaders and owners who are determined to get their bodies (I mean businesses) into shape through marketing… and unfortunately I am seeing that they are starting to gorge themselves silly on non effective, pricey, and unproved marketing activities instead of simply adding a “sales” activity.
Like scrambled eggs and toast… marketing and sales should never be separated – they should and need to start working together if your ROMI (return on marketing investment) is truly going to be seen. If you are going to create a brochure… great… and whats the objective for that brochure and how is it going to make you money? Create an online campaign… great…. what are you going to do in the follow up sales activities that is going to give you a return that you never thought possible. Do a letter drop… ooh wait…. never do a letter drop – period!
So how can you add a simple equation of selling to your marketing? All you need to do is everytime you create a marketing activity ask yourself these questions:
- After the marketing activity is complete… now what? (TIP: the answer is NEVER another marketing activity)
- Has my marketing activity driven any revenue?…. if the answer is NO – then you have yet to sell!
- Have you earned the right? What I mean by this is that sure you have done a great marketing activity… have you in fact managed to build great rapport with your customer to the point where they are begging to buy from you – and you don’t need to ask? If not… INSERT SALES ACTIVITY.
So don’t be stingy on the toast… yes you will get some short term benefits – try to start thinking of the long term gain though, and that does not include spending copious amounts of money on sugary, fatty marketing delights!
Would love to hear your thoughts…
Cheers
N
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | be seen, eggs, marketing, naomi, nexus, ROI, ROMI, sales and marketing, selling, toast
Love your anolgy! It is amazing that even though we know this we still do stupid things like “letter drops” and think that works on it’s own. Its hard habit to kick but when we finally do we start seeing results! Keep up your inspriational morning walks
Love the anlogy! Why is it that when in doubt we do “letter drops”? Guess it is a hard habit to kick but when we do it we start to see results. Thanks for the reminder and PS Keep up the inspirational morning walks
Thanks Red Flair… it’s funny how quickly we are willing to change our habits, once we see the results… what is so fearful about trying something new in order to see those results though??
The walks definitely provide some very thought provoking material
oops didn’t realise the first comment went through… Oh well I REALLY mean it
lol
Okay, I am about to break new ground and actually respond. Not a regular thing for me to do, a bit like the classic “Long time listener, first time caller” scenario.
To expand a little on Naomi’s blog (sorry to take such a liberty), for me it’s more about the balance and variety than the staples. Marketing and Sales are indeed the happy couple. Whilst they co-exist happily, sometimes one takes precedence or front stage for a period during the relationship.
I site a client of ours as an example. He is in Real Estate (stop it!). In fact, he is the Director of the VIC/TAS No.1 office for this particular group of Real Estate Agent. At this point, declaring an interest as his Print Broker may be relevant.
He operates under the Eggs and Toast regime with a twist. His view (and hey, it must be going okay judging by the success) is that when times are a little tough in a particular sales field, businesses tend to pull back on marketing as an expense. He does the opposite. To quote him “When all of our opposition reduce, or even stop sending out flyers to homes, we make sure we maintain that part of our marketing regime”. However, within his material is little twists, quirks and incentives in order to eventually lead to a sale, or at least some interest.
I guess you could say, he substitutes one piece of toast for a little grilled tomato or perhaps a few mushrooms. Changing the menu can heighten interest, gain new interest or even keep the Chef motivated. Or, all three.
We have now gone from keeping the Baker and Egg Farmer happy, to including the produce grower, keeping our regular diners as just that and spreading the word via our printed flyers (sorry, had to include eggs done sales side up), whilst all the while keeping our staff motivated and interested.
So next time you clean off the chalk from the specials board, consider the breaky deal that includes a free upsize for your Latte’.
There I did it.
Hi Shane… welcome to the show!
I love your comment – it really opens up the thinking to what sales in fact is – and how to engage our clients to the best of our abilities… who knew that all it took was thinking outside of the box a little and adding value?!?
Thank you Shane… I am touched that my blog was the one to “capture” your interest enough for you to reply.
Cheers
N