Marketing pre-positions prospects before the selling conversation
Most people confuse selling with marketing, and that confusion costs them enormously. Selling is what happens when you're on the phone or face-to-face with someone — you're directly converting them. Marketing is everything you do before that conversation to make sure the person arriving is pre-interested, pre-qualified, pre-motivated, and already predisposed to do business with you. When marketing works, selling almost takes care of itself. When marketing fails, you're trying to talk people into something they have no context for. The three highest-ROI activities in any business are creating new products, creating new marketing, and opening new distribution channels. Everything else — networking calls, business cards, perfecting your website — is playing business. Real business happens when you are systematically converting strangers into buyers through scalable channels.
Relevant Clips3
- Answer5:11
Marketing Pre-Qualifies So Selling Can Actually Close
Selling is what you do when you're directly communicating with someone on the phone or face-to-face. Marketing is what you do beforehand to get someone to that conversation properly positioned - meaning they're pre-interested, pre-qualified, pre-motivated, and predisposed to do business with you.
- Answer5:40
Why Marketing Requires Trained Expertise Not Opinions
Everyone wants to contribute to marketing because it seems sexy, but you're taking untested opinions from untrained people and spending real money on them. Marketing requires trained expertise and discipline, not crowd-sourced opinions.
- Answer0:51
Highest ROI Activities Are New Products New Marketing New Distribution
The highest ROI activities are creating new products, new marketing, and new distribution channels. Everything else like networking calls, business cards, and website perfection is just playing business rather than doing real business.