Twenty years ago, I was in a technical meeting to discuss new development in metallurgy.

The Technical Manager hosting the meeting could hardly contain his bemusement at the collateral material delivered to him by his marketing team. For a few minutes over tea we discussed the artwork together and what it all might mean…

If you have ever been in a situation like this then you can quickly grasp the essential differences between Marketing and Business Development. The Marketing team are highly skilled, professional people but not necessarily focused upon delivering top line growth for the company. By comparison, Business Development teams exist almost entirely to meet the requirements of the company business plan, and as such should be living with the sales targets.  

Marketing needs to be informed by technical staff and the sales team on the types of person likely to place orders, and which messages are likely to persuade them of the key benefits of the product.

Part of the assessment I would make of your company would look at the marketing materials and how they meet the key demands of the business. Hopefully they work well but if they can be improved, I would be happy as an external figure to work with the key staff to reach and equitable way forward to improve that performance. Key aspects of the assessment would be: 

• Do the key messages from marketing match the sales priorities?
• Are the sales targets of the company reflected in the website presence?
• How are the leads generated by the website and marketing collateral handled?
• Are the routes to market clearly defined and equally owned by the marketing team, sales and management?

If you think you could help from this approach then please feel free to get in touch here.