If You Don’t Have Your Sales Process Down, Marketing Won’t Help

I am a social media consultant.  When a company reaches out to me, almost every time, it is because they feel that their sub-par or lack of social media marketing is hurting their sales.  When that is the case, I am able to work with their business and often help them see a sizable increase in revenue within 4-6 months.  However, most often, social media is not the cause of their sales issues.

For the sake of this article, lets assume the business had a solid in-demand product or service that is priced competitively within their market.  For business that this is not the case, those issues need to be addressed first. 

Several times a month, this happens to me:

Business reaches out and tells me they need help with social media because they are not getting any sales from social media, their website, or that referrals from social media aren’t generating any sales.

I review their data and analytics of their social media.

I find their social media to be sub-par, but I find that the amount of followers, engagement, buying interest from followers and website clicks should justify significantly more sales.

I look closer at the people engaging with their social media and going to their website.  They look to be very well within their target market.

What is the problem?

I would love to tell these businesses that the solution is to back up the Brinks Truck and give me all their marketing budget and I’ll solve all the problems. But that would not solve anything, in fact, it would just waste money and increase their frustration.

The problem is with their sales process.  When your sales process is broken or not efficient, marketing will not help you, and social media marketing will serve no purpose other than branding (but what good is branding that does not lead to sales?).

Good marketing will bring your business prospective customers.  Great marketing will bring those prospective customers to the point of sale.  Your sales process takes over from there.  If you’re not turning those prospects into customers, the problem is not with your marketing, the problem is with your sales process.

How well defined is your sales process?  Have you tested it, over and over?  

Before you spend a dollar on marketing, make sure your sales process is a well-oiled machine. Quality social media marketing will grow your business, but only if your sales process is solid.  Work on that sales process, then start looking at ways to better your marketing.