Marketing vs. Selling

I was having a conversation recently and I made the statement that conversation marketing is more analogous to the sales process than it is to traditonal marketing.

Since I work in a culture that understands and reveres the value of the one on one sales interaction, I am hoping that this comparison resonates.

Here is what I mean.  Even when it is very well informed by market research, traditonal marketing is really about blasting a message at an audience.  The individuals that make up that audience then have a binary choice.  They can  either accept the postion of the company or they can reject it. (of course, there is allways the 3rd choice to ignore). 

The sales call is different.  The salesman makes his pitch, the customer then has a chance to voice their objections, and _then_ the salesman has the oportunity to _overcome_ those objections.  Any great salesman will tell you that they welcome objections and view them as opportunities.

Conversation marketing presents us with this same opportunity.  We now have the abilty to hear the customers objections and address them.  We have the abilty to make the sale.

How about it? Does this resonate with you?

Comments

[Sid]

Good Thoughts. On a separate note, what kind of marketing do you think works best for pharmaceutcial companies? Also any thoughts on closed loop marketing?

[Mike Sellberg]

Rob--I agree with your analogy. I have direct experience working as part of a enterprise software sales team and I would definitely agree that "objection handling" (and I would add "competitive differentiation") offer the best opportunities for a salesperson. If you are good, this is where you can shine. And because there is the feeling of a friendly, "open debate" in this sales situation it feels more transparent and truthful to a potential customer than a "canned marketing message."

I think conversation marketing offers the same feeling of "transparency" and "open debate"--if your product is as good as you are saying it is, you should embrace the conversation because you are confident your product/service will fair well in this kind of "give-and-take."