I’ve worked in sales & recruitment for over 25 years, in terms of my recruitment career 10 years of that focused on marketing and now specialising in sales & business development. In that time I’ve had the pleasure of sitting next to some fantastic salespeople but additionally some great marketeers, and this is a subject I’ve noticed has been hot on the lips of people in the past. Do marketers get the credit they deserve for the revenue they generate?
Ultimately it depends on the business, but in general I would probably say that the answer is more no than yes, and they really do deserve it. So, when they don’t get enough credit, why do you think this is? I would say it comes down to 3 main factors:
Unmeasured marketing campaigns – A lot of businesses and marketers just don’t spend enough time measuring and checking their campaigns. Either campaigns are set up in such a way they’re difficult to track, or nobody is taking the time to look at the data. Easy fixes are monitoring businesses and people that respond to adverts and then following up to see if they convert into clients, using contact forms for web enquiries, and adding voucher codes that can be tracked. And remember if you don’t monitor and track your marketing campaigns, they’re not going to perform to their best ability, so it’s a win-win if you do this. Your campaigns do better, and you can show exactly what you achieved.
Focus on only rewarding sales teams with commission/bonuses – Don’t get me wrong sales teams deserve commission for cold calling and doing the ugly parts of generating revenue that nobody wants to do, it’s an incredibly stressful job and it’s hard work. But when an amazing marketing campaign drops a deal in their lap, and they close it with one easy phone call is it right they get 100% of the commission? I feel businesses that focused on performance bonuses for leads generated through campaigns as well, would see more creativity, more effort, and more focus on making strategy lead to sales, a lower cost per acquisition, and a generally more motivated marketing team.
Nobody is raising their hand – Hey this isn’t just the fault of businesses, as already outlined. Whilst companies need to appreciate what’s happening and being achieved, people also need to put their hand up and say ‘that was me, I did that’, ‘That deal came from my campaign, ‘That guy called in as I sent him an email’. I would imagine in a cross section of a marketing team there would likely be on average less gregarious extroverts happy to take credit for stuff and massage their egos, and as a result often their credit can get swallowed up by other people closing the sales and shouting from the rooftops, and this leads to a lack of appreciation for the bigger picture.
I understand a lot of the above is different company to company, for example in the consumer-focused sector there’s perhaps a much higher correlation between marketing and sales revenue, and additionally there’s a lot of fantastic businesses that do reward and measure marketing teams success.
But if you find yourself sitting there nodding, while reading this blog, ask yourself ‘Are you doing your bit?’. Track and measure your campaigns, then put your hand up and take credit. And if you do that and you’re still not appreciated? Pick up the phone and talk to Brand Recruitment 😊.
This blog was guest written by Joby Read – Managing Director of Zero Surplus – Targeted Sales Recruitment, East Anglia’s premier sales & business development recruitment business.