Marketing Statements that Show Your Company is Out of Touch

As B2B marketing outsource providers, we get to hear some interesting statements about marketing. Some of these statements indicate a philosophy that can be detrimental to achieving your marketing and sales objectives. If you hear any of your internal personnel saying any of the following, consider it a red flag and address the issue right away.

1. Why should we spend any more time working on the website? That’s what our sales team is for. This is a very scary statement that shows a lack of understanding about current trends in B2B marketing and how prospects look for potential products and solutions. For example, according to Hubspot.com, in the B2B arena, 80 percent or more of the product research is done by the potential buyer before they interact with you. They are at your website reading your marketing material and they are judging you by what they see and read there. If your website stinks, they go away. It is that simple.
2. Our marketing department stinks so we’ll hire more B2B sales reps. B2B companies have been implementing the “hire more sales reps” strategy for years and most of the time, this doesn’t work. Throwing more bodies at a flawed process just multiplies the problem. The better approach is to implement a marketing machine that generates inquiries at a relatively low cost, convert a healthy percentage of these to qualified leads, and then focus your sales teams on closing, not prospecting. Yes this really works.
3. Why should we waste time on pull marketing and social media? That stuff doesn’t work. I have heard this many times and it always makes me laugh. Why? Because some of our best clients come to us through our pull marketing or social media initiatives. And our clients have themselves used pull marketing to generate quality sales leads and revenue. It takes patience and persistence but if you practice pull marketing correctly, you will get results.
4. Since we are selling a commodity product, we have to compete on price. Once you go down this path, it seldom gets better. Creating a compelling and differentiated brand for your products and/or services is hard work but it is essential to revenue and profitability. Here is a blog post on this subject of Brand Promise from CustomerThink.
5. We can’t compete because our product is weak or lacks features. This type of internal product bashing can lead to no good. As a marketer, you need to find what makes your offering superior, and when you cast doubts on your own product, it just gives everyone an excuse for failure. If you can’t be enthusiastic about what you are doing, do yourself and your company a favor and find a new position.
6. The sales team can’t sell its way out of a paper bag. This type of thinking is just as dangerous as denigrating the product. I’ve written a lot about how to bridge the gap between marketing and sales. Here are a few resources to help with this challenging problem.
   • Bridging the Gap in B2B Marketing and Sales
   • Bridge the Gap Between Sales and Marketing (Webinar)
   • Bridging the Gap Between Sales and Marketing (White Paper)

   It behooves both departments to work cooperatively and there is nothing to be gained by this type of infighting.

If you hear any of these types of statements from your marketing team, or have the urge to make them yourself, please take corrective action. The marketing game is tough and you need the right mindset to beat the competition.