You’re not getting any Results

If you work in marketing, you’ll know this sentiment really well.

You’ve been asked to mount a campaign that will drive product sales. It’s a relatively unexplored market for a niche high value product in the company’s product mix. In fact, so niche, they’ve been completely ignoring it completely and chasing after scaling the cheap and cheerful products they sell instead.

You’ve spotted an emerging gap in the market and you convince them this campaign will be good for the business.

The powers that be look doubtful, but agree to proceed.

You suggest a direct telesales approach with tailored marketing follow up to generate awareness and respond to those companies who express a level of interest. You draw up a list of potential customers, gather their details, create the marketing info you need for quick follow up if the customer asks for more, and get cracking.

You’re now a couple of months in and you’ve been diligently calling, following up, passing over hot leads for quotes but nothing has converted to sales as yet. The company is not happy.

You’ve been summoned to their office. They are calling it a day on their working relationship.

Your services are no longer required.

But here’s the thing. That two month campaign is still generating sales for them two years later.

How do I know that? Because this exact scenario happened to me a couple of years ago.

And how do I know it’s still generating sales for them?

Well, because they keep posting about all these new (niche product) clients they have. Over and over again.

I’ve also sneaked a peek at their annual accounts and there it is in black and white.

Niche product campaign was singled out in their financial summary as a key driver of sales in that financial year, and an area they intend to focus on going forward.

The top line impact? Well 10% revenue growth is not to be sniffed at but, as for the bottom line, scaling up the higher value product sales has delivered a rather gorgeous 38% increase in their bottom line.

Turns out the marketing was working after all.

I tried not to feel smug.

I’ve seen this scenario time and time again but this particular client popped up again on my timeline this week boasting about one of their latest contracts and, lo and behold, it was one of the companies on my original target list and who had requested a follow up.

This tactical approach to marketing is the business equivalent of going to the gym a couple of times and expecting to have a six pack by the end of the month.

Marketing and growth takes time and proper investment. People don’t just buy your products because you have got out of bed and decided to tell them about them. They need to want them, need them, or both. That requires communication. Lots of communication in some circumstances.

The really great companies know this. Marketing isn’t something you switch on and off, it’s like a combustion engine, you switch it on and keep it going. And when you are on the tracks heading towards your destination, make as few stops as possible. It’s the momentum that makes the difference.

Were we cut off in our prime? Yes.

Will they ever admit we were right? Definitely not.

Was it unfair? Slightly.

Were we ultimately right? Absolutely.

Are they still benefitting from our expertise? Undoubtedly.

Will they learn from this? Probably not.

They’ll think they did it all by themselves. But I have the original call list, and it curiously matches to a great many of their stream of social media posts about the delivery of their niche product for client after client.

The next time someone questions why the results are not faster, feel free to use this example. Marketing doesn’t just sell today, that’s what sales people are for. Marketing sells tomorrow, and the day after, and the week after, and the month after and the year after that.