Which Is Most Important, To Be Recognized Or Make Sales?

By Justin Hitt, Sales & Marketing Advisor, Hitt Publishing Direct

When working with clients on business copywriting, I see many struggles with the difference between being recognized and making sales. Most business-to-business firms want to have both when only one really matters. Smaller firms (just over $1 million in gross revenue) like to be recognized, but here's why that's the wrong approach . . .

The justification for being recognized is reasonable, professed by branding efforts of distributors and the Fortune 500. However, its critical business-to-business firms wake up -- Do you really have the millions required for this national or regional recognition? That's exactly what Fortune 500 firms have available at their disposal.

Greedy advertising agencies, hungry for commissions, want you to think that image matters, and in some markets they are right. But for you the industrial business-to-business marketer, nothing matters but sales! No body really gets by on good looks alone, unless you have the budget to put them everywhere.

Smart firms growing in the $1 million to $50+ million gross (if they want to grow anymore) must take every effort to make every advertising effort create sales -- branding and recognition comes second in every case. Yes, you might feel good being seen in the latest trade publication, but imagine the feeling you'll have exceeding your sales quota every month!

I ask clients spend as much as 15% of their targeted gross revenue, not because I want higher commissions (which I don't take), it's because every bit of marketing I advocate is designed to generate a hard return on investment. The recognition you receive being top of your industry is far better than just being recognized.

If you spend $1,000 dollars on advertising, you better produce $2,000 in return, or even better have a plan to turn qualified prospects into life long buyers. This type of advertising is called "Direct Response" because for every effort you have a measurable result -- a sales result that makes each campaign earn its own way.

Just as you wouldn't retain a sales person who didn't meet quota, every advertising campaign is "Salesmanship in print!" Right now, no matter whom you are working with, ask these three questions:

What is the target revenue to generate from each marketing campaign over the first 90-days of the effort?

How do we know how many sales this advertisement made for our organization and how they related to profitability?

How closely related to each advertising effort is each sale of customer generated from the same campaign?

I encourage you to kick unproductive advertising to the curb. There is no place for it in today's competitive business-to-business firms, especially when buyers have more choices than ever before. Is your advertising making the sales it needs to justify the initial investment?

Justin Hitt helps industrial and professional services business-to-business firms improve selling efforts with fewer resources. If you have a particular project in mind, visit http://hittpublishingdirect.com/ to learn how you can get resources that make it better. You can reach Justin at +1 (757) 282-7779

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