It’s easy to get swooned by social media when you think about marketing products. For some reason, many smallish companies think they should invest their marketing budget into getting followers on Facebook, Instagram or Tik Tok. Realistically, with nearly 350 million people living in the USA, it is nearly impossible to make an impact on those social media channels if you only have 10,000 or 50,000 followers.
As a business owner, that’s a tough conversation to have with your marketing director when they want you to invest significant money into a social media campaign.
So, a few weeks ago, when “The Revenue Engine” by Kara Smith Brown was published I couldn’t wait to download a copy on Audible.
A little background on Kara – she lives in Atlanta, is currently an entrepreneur (www.leadcoverage.com ) but has a more than 20-year career in B2B marketing. In fact, her name is on the 2009 IPO press release for her then employer, Echo Global Logistics. I was introduced to her a few months ago and we have had several conversations.
For anyone who does business marketing (not consumer marketing), this book should be your playbook. For my friends and business colleagues in the food industry, if you want to know how to grow your business, how the marketing function should be in lockstep with the sales function, this is your bible.
Too many times, marketing departments become the flyer department. Or the trade show department. Or the first department to get their budget cut in tough times.
When I owned my wholesale produce distribution business, and a recession hit, I made a concerted effort to “not participate in the recession.” I doubled down on trade marketing. And it paid off. That’s how my company, Frieda’s Specialty Produce became the best-known company in our industry.
As Kara puts it in her book, “Always share good news.” I’m not talking about your normal trade press release. I’m talking about knowing what is important news from your clients’ or prospects’ perspective and then sharing what you are doing to meet that need.
You have a new logo? That is not news to share. But if you redesigned your packaging to make your product stand out on the retail shelf, resulting in faster velocity, that’s news. Because, your clients and prospects want faster selling products.
Kara talks about the customer funnel. Do you have a system and process through which your prospects convert into clients? My guess is that you don’t. You probably let your salespeople send out emails and price sheets to whomever they are trying to sell and you are literally crossing your fingers that your company’s revenues increase each year.
If there is one business book I would recommend to my clients, it is The Revenue Engine. It is literally the best playbook I’ve ever come across on how to coordinate marketing and sales departments, how to ensure there is a process by which sales happen at your company and it demystifies marketing for all business owners.
Have you ordered the book yet? Once you read it, and implement the processes in the book, I guarantee it will produce amazing 2025 numbers for your company.
Let’s go!
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