Posts Tagged ‘Sales’
074 Marketing is Sales at Scale
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Welcome to Lochhead on Marketing. In this episode, Christopher Lochhead answers the question, what is the most important skill for marketers to have?
Sales Skills
Christopher shares that his frequent answer to the most important skill for marketers to have is sales skills. He says that a lot of marketing people have no sales experience at all.
“Marketing is actually sales at scale.” – Christopher Lochhead
The Best Marketers Are Salesmen
Christopher recounts that the best marketers he know are those who have sales experience even at a young age.
“I think legendary marketers, and frankly, legendary executives, for that matter, regardless of what part of the business you’re in, have a base level of a solid foundation of sales skills. So if you can’t sell one on one, then you can’t market at scale.” – Christopher Lochhead
Marketing People Are A Joke
Second prime importance why sales is the essential skill to have as a marketer, is that many salespeople think marketers are a joke.
“I know this is harsh, but it’s true. And the reason for that primarily, is that many people in the sales organization realize that many marketers suck in front of customers. And if you suck in front of one customer, how can you market to thousands or hundreds of thousands of potential customers.” – Christopher Lochhead
To know more why marketing is sales at scale, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.
He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.
032 Want to do Legendary Marketing? Learn to Sell!
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Did you know, one of the top reasons why CMOs and marketing leaders get fired is: the sales force thinks they are a joke. In this episode, we talk about why it is important for marketers to become great at sales.
Marketing Is Sales Scaled
If you think about what marketing is, it is actually selling at scale. Christopher thinks that in 30 to 90 seconds, a marketer should be able to lay down a point of view that captures the imagination of the audience. If you can’t, you have a serious “sales” issue.
“I think, as counterintuitive as this might sound, the number one skill set required to be legendary at marketing, is to have a black belt in sales.” – Christopher Lochhead
Spend Time in The Field
Christopher thinks that as a marketer, you should spend a disproportionate amount of time in the field. If you spend time with customers, you get a pulse on their problems and what opportunities are out there.
“When you spend a lot of time in the field, the needs of the category sort of get into your bones, into your soul. It also enables you to have more empathy for both customers and your sales organization.” – Christopher Lochhead
Train and Set Goals
As important as getting adequate sales traning and gathering first hand information, marketers should also set a goal to become a requested person during sales calls. This means that you get the approval and respect of the sales force, which in turn means you are a legendary marketer.
To add, Christopher provided mentioned The Ziglar Show Podcast (Kevin Miller), The Brutal Truth about Sales & Selling (Brian Burns) and book What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School (Mark McCormack), as great resources to improve your marketing skills.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.
He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.
050 Can Sales & Marketing Work Together? with Brian Burns
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On this episode, a no BS leader in the sales world, legendary author and podcaster Brian Burns.
Brian and Christopher had a captivating free-range conversation about sales & marketing and they unearth some powerful ideas for how the two can work together and they tackled the always important topic of – sales and marketing alignment.
“Certainly in marketing, we’ve got a lot of shiny objects to play with and what I found working with CMOs is they pick the shiny object who enhance their portfolio versus enhance the company’s position.” – Brian Burns
Sales and Marketing Alignment
Have you ever run into this issue? Lochhead found some easy ways to get it right where sales and marketing were completely in sync.
First is for CMOS to treat the quarterly sales number like it was your 100% responsibility.
“If you’re the head of sales and I’m the head of marketing and we’re working together, it’s not your number, it’s our number. It’s not your company, it’s our company.” – Christopher Lochhead
Breaking the Gap between Sales and Marketing
Being in a field is where you will really learn.
“I think the misalignment of sales and marketing, generally is the fault marketing.” – Christopher Lochhead
To hear more about Brian a no BS leader in the sales world, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Brian Burns is the sales guru in Silicon Valley and a host of two podcasts in the top 15 in business on iTunes, The B2B Revenue Leadership show, and The Brutal Truth about Sales and Selling.
He has authored four books on B2B sales and marketing and he has over 25 years of experience.
Links:
We hope you enjoyed Brian Burns on this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
