To help you avoid these same pitfalls, I have listed some of the top sales and marketing mistakes companies make.

Mistake #1: Having A 'One And Done' Mentality When It Comes To A Marketing Campaign - To succeed at marketing, you need to target the most qualified prospects on a continuous basis - especially since 97% to 99% of your prospective buyers are NOT ready to buy what you are selling.

Mistake #2: Keeping Poor Performing Salespeople On The Company's Payroll Too Long - It will behoove you to provide your salespeople with a written goal of what they need to produce in sales to be employed at your company. Although this can sometimes be a grey area, you do need to provide salespeople with written guidelines to help set their expectations (and to light some drive in them too).

Mistake #3: Not Building An Accurate Database Of Customers, Past Customers And Prospects - Successful businesses know that having an accurate database of prospective buyers to target will give them the greatest ROI on their sales and marketing efforts.

Mistake #4: Not Creating A Business Development Center For Your Salespeople - Salespeople need to not only have ad slicks and brochures at their fingertips to send to a prospective buyer, but they also need sales tools like whitepapers, articles, press releases, customer testimonials, success stories (cost-saving or money-making), etc. That said, create an "electronic" folder they can all tap into for this resource.

Mistake #5: Not Creating A Hunter's Mentality For Your Sales Team - There are many elements that go into creating a hunter's mentality; however, one of the best things you can do is to give you salespeople a high commission/spiff on a new sale.

Mistake #6: Not Focusing On A Niche Market - One of the best things you can do for your sales and marketing team is to focus on a specific vertical(s). Do this, and you will be surprised to see how quickly you can increase your sales.

Mistake #7: Not Having A Sales Follow-Up System In Place - Companies that have the most sales success have a formal follow-up system in place - a system that integrates both their sales team and their marketing campaigns.

Mistake #8: Not Measuring The Right Sales Metric For Their Salespeople - It is not all about measuring the number of telephone calls or appointments a salesperson makes, it is more about measuring the events, e.g., webinars, demos or decision-maker meetings, that trigger the sales process.

THE #1 MISTAKE YOU NEED TO AVOID IS THIS:

Mistake #9: Not Willing To Change Or Modify Their Current Sales And Marketing Strategies, Tactics And Behaviors - If you are not willing to change your current sales and marketing efforts, don't expect to see things change in a positive direction any time soon.

Mistake #10: Relying Upon Salespeople To Stay In Touch With Their Database Of Prospects - Our research has proven that 50% of all salespeople stopped contacting, for at least 9 to 12 months or altogether, a prospective buyer after their FIRST unsuccessful attempt at getting the sales process started or moved forward. This number skyrockets to 99% after their third unsuccessful attempt. If you are the sales leader for your organization, don't think YOUR salespeople will perform any differently.

Executive Summary: There are many costly sales and marketing mistakes that ALL businesses make -- including yours and mine. If you take a really close look at your organization, you will see how you can overcome a lot of the challenges listed above.

© Drip Marketing, Inc. All Rights Reserved & May Not Be Used Without Written Permission

The home of payroll newsletters, payroll prospecting postcards and referral partner marketing packages

Keep Your Marketing Simple And Cost Effective; But Don't Stop Marketing.

To help you jump-start your sales on Monday morning, I have listed below a few ideas that could pay you huge dividends - the key is to be consistent, have a great marketing message and then follow-up on it.

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INT: Print this list and pass it to your sales and marketing staff for further discussion.

1. Show People The Things That Make You Different. Take a quick look at what you are saying and ask yourself, "Do we look like another small, me too payroll service with what we are saying?"
2. Focus On A Niche. Niche marketing allows you to develop a more focused database and sales message.
3. Survey Your Customers. Have you ever asked your customers what they would like for other services? How about asking them how well you are performing? Do this and your leads will soar.
4. Use A Combination Of e-Mail Marketing AND Direct Mail. Sure, e-mail marketing is dirt-cheap; however, only 10% - 25% of your subscribers are opening/reading your message; therefore, 75% - 90% ARE NOT. Don't commit marketing madness by exclusively relying upon e-mail marketing.
5. Use The Postal Service. If it makes sense for your target market, send a low-cost postcard to them. Better yet, send a lumpy mail campaign (page 145 in my book) to a select group of prospective buyers.
6. Send A Thank You Card. Sending a thank you card is a great way to remind people you appreciate their time and/or their business.
7. Provide People A Low-Risk Way To Learn More. No matter what you sell, always promote some type of special offer to your target audience.By the way, it doesn't have to be a dollar off or discount to buy what you sell.
8. Pick Up The Phone. The fastest way you can increase your sales is to pick up the phone and call someone AFTER they have received one of your marketing campaigns.
9. Change The Way You Do Things Starting Monday Morning. If you want to change your sales results you need to change the things you are doing today. The key will be to drop the one that don't work for your business and fine-tune the ones that do.
10. Don't Always Lead With A Payroll Message. Many payroll service salespeople fall victim to calling a prospect about their "payroll service." Why not change the message once a while and lead with an ancillary business service discussion like time and attendance, HR outsourcing, etc.

Executive Summary: Being consistent AND persistent with a finely tuned (and creative) marketing message will be you success. Remember, some people take 30 touches/calls before they talk with you while others could be just a few. Just because someone doesn't want to talk with you today doesn't mean they won't tomorrow.