Selling Karma asks you the following, “Should you be “nice” as a prospective customer, or “not so nice” in response to unsolicited sales (business development) approaches?“
Selling Karma escapes most. Here’s an example: A young, business development (BizDev) representative (BDR) walks fires up his laptop on Monday to the following message:
F@*& YOU [his first name]!!!
– Actual reply to a Sales/BizDev email
As the Principal Officer here at The Javelin Institute, I’ve been in Sales since the age of 7 when I sold chocolate bars for my little league baseball team. Over the years, I want to believe that I’ve developed a thick layer of skin built up from all the rejections I’ve received in attempting to sell products/services. One of the reasons I love people that perform sales jobs is that they also have this thick layer of skin (Yes, the club icon is a band-aid 🩹 ). But even with those years and that extra layer of skin, seeing this post on LinkedIn still stung!
Selling Karma 101
Sales (#) and Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL) Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are the two cornerstones of success in the Sales/Business Development and Marketing world. Salespeople know that there are much time and money spent on research before making a sale. Marketers understand that Salespeople need to know the market, have good contacts and a proven track record. Sales and Marketing KPIs are integral elements of each respective company’s success.
Marketing and Salespeople rely on each other for business development success. Marketing is not just a time-consuming process. It’s also very expensive! Spending valuable time on market research, business development and trying to get into the mind of a prospect is a waste of time and money. But by having all the answers, and knowing how to get to them first, a successful marketing team can turn prospects into customers in no time at all.
The Selling Karma Strategy
Marketing and Sales programs must be easy to use, have a proven track record of results and be cost effective. Without these three elements, a marketing and sales team is nothing more than a bunch of amateurs with nothing to show for their efforts. They can waste a lot of time doing what should be a simple, easy task for someone who is trained in the process. Instead, they should invest that time in hiring a professional business development team. They should spend the time to train their own team, develop their skills and their ability to sell, while spending the same time to train those same people in the newest, most effective technology available to help market the business.
What Role Does Innovation Play in Selling Karma?
Marketing and Sales Teams should not only be available, but they should be experienced and talented at developing new ideas. While selling a product is important, the true value is in the business development of that product and the way it will help the company grow. The trick is to make sure that a marketing and sales team understands that the sales are just part of the overall success of the program.
It’s All About the Customer in Selling Karma!
The third and most important component of Sales/Business Development is Client Services. Simply put, if a customer doesn’t feel like they are receiving quality service after purchasing a product or service from a particular business, they are not going to bother returning or recommending that business to others. Sales and marketing karma are a big part of making sure that clients feel like they are getting the best value for their dollar. If a business doesn’t get good service, then they may never return or recommend that business to others.
SUMMARY
All of the above is about making sure that a person’s life and business development are positively impacted by their business development and marketing. The process is not always easy, especially for beginners. However, if a person is willing to invest the time to really learn and grow, then they can reach a level of success that would be hard to achieve without the assistance of an experienced business development and marketing team. Just make sure that the individuals you hire are talented and capable.
Sam Palazzolo, Principal Officer @ The Javelin Institute