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There are right and wrong ways to go about marketing, and the pitfalls are many. A lot can be learned by seeing how not to manage your marketing. This original blog series weaves together an entertaining story that will help you navigate 21st-Century marketing with a view from “the dark side,” as “Screwtape” teaches his apprentice “Wormwood” via email how to sabotage your marketing. Enjoy…
PART THREE:
To: Wormwood
From: Screwtape
Subject: Disconnection
My dear Wormwood,
Disconnection, division, dismember, divorce—Ah, the beautiful chaos of breaking things apart! As you know, we are destroyers, not creators; deconstructionists of all that is built.
In this case, your assignment is to disengage sales and marketing. By no means must we allow the Patient to see these two as mutually-dependent (or “symbiotic,” as is the biological term). Any organization works best when sales and marketing work together as an organism. Think of the human body’s relationship with bacteria, such as those that aid in digestion: There are more bacteria in a body than human cells! Or think of lichen, a symbiosis of fungi and algae. Take away the bacteria, and the human cannot survive; take the fungus or algae out of lichen, and it can no longer thrive in its environment.
Encourage the patient to compartmentalize sales and marketing into two separate silos. Have the sales team view marketing as “fluff” and essentially money thrown away. Convince the marketing team that their craft is superior to sales, and the sales team is essentially taking credit for marketing’s months of work. Never—I repeat—never allow these teams to collaborate! If they do, our cause is sunk!
Perhaps a military analogy will enlighten you. Often the most effective way to achieve a military objective is for the Air Force and Navy to begin taking out strategic targets—ammunition depos, fuel tanks, runways, troop concentrations, and such—through bombing. This prepares the way for the ground troops (Army & Marines) to finish the job. Without the Air Force and Navy, ground troops will meet with stiff resistance; without the ground troops, ground cannot be taken nor total victory achieved.
It’s marketing’s job to prepare the ground for sales. Their main functions include building brand awareness, touting the benefits of the products and services, initiating meaningful relationships with prospects and stirring to action (which we often call leads and conversions).
Now, of course the sales team can and will “cold call,” but without the brand awareness marketing builds, they are going to meet more resistance. You might say they will have an uphill battle! Having leads brought to you through inbound marketing is far superior to chasing them down! Marketing can utilize email drip campaigns, blogs, PPC and social media advertising and have generated leads fed directly into Salesforce or other sales CRM programs. Done right, it’s seamless and combines the best of personal touch with automated lead generation.
See the danger to our cause if sales and marketing unite? If your Patient achieves this unity of disciplines, then…hmmm… the word “discipline” will apply to you in a different context. Dissolve, deter and sow dissonance. We are watching.
Your affectionate uncle,
Screwtape
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