Who brings the Money?
So many times throughout my career, I have been in debates about “who brings the money in for the company?”.
Being a “marketer”, usually everyone assumes that I believe that marketing is responsible for paying the bills. That the “awareness” campaigns that marketing does is what drives consumers to purchase the product/service, thus, bring in the money in.
I always have to disagree to this.
I have always believed that it is the sales team/staff/etc. that is responsible for bringing the money in. Without a sales force, no one will ever find the product in the market. Yes, there are times where the money spent on branding/marketing is so excessive that stores call and ask for the product (because of the demand in the market), but, this is so rare that any company relying on this as their sole revenue generator always fold.
Sales teams are the lifeblood of any organization and it is a marketing persons role to first and foremost support the sales team with any and all needed materials to “make the sell”. Be it a presentation, brochure, advertisement, prototype, etc.
Companies that “get ahead of themselves” and don’t continuously do gut-checks with the sales team quickly experience their sales declining. A salesforce using a presentation that is over a year old, or brochures that list products that have been discontinued, quickly put the salesperson in a postition of disadvantage -where they don’t have the respect that is needed to sell the product.
Support your sales team – without them, you don’t get a paycheck.
