Inspired Marketing Marketing Tips, Tools, and Resources
to Build your Business

April , 2014
In This Issue
Who is BoomerBizBuilder?
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Trudy Van Buskirk, owner of BoomerBizBuilder is a woman's business and marketing coach, trainer, author, writer, and resource (she knows people, books, etc). Her focus is helping people start their own business. She also teaches boomer women and those with disabilities to tell their stories as a way to connect.

As a woman who started and ran several businesses (see the About Me page on her website), Trudy can help with your business and suggest what marketing to do or do it for you then train you on how to  "do-it-yourself".
Think About This Question .....

Do you spend more time on sales or marketing? What should you do more of to get more clients?

Follow-up Links

Marketing Tools

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When I co-owned the Apple computer dealership in the 1980s, I took care of training, finance and inventory and my partner did marketing, sales and service. When we closed it I took time to decide what I wanted to do next. I decided that my partner had had all the fun so I undertook to learn marketing. Fast forward to 1995, and I was known as a marketing coach:-)

One of the many things I learned was the difference between marketing and sales.

Read on and learn more about these differences. 

Solopreneurs do both marketing and sales.

 

But did you know there are differences between the two? In the 1980s I co-owned an Apple computer dealership here in Toronto. At first when we were tiny (worked from home) the line between the two was blurred since my partner did both of them. But as we grew we hired sales people to sell and my partner did the marketing.

 

I found out the differences right away then! Marketers market and sales people sell - right? But where does one end and the other begin. Here are six of the differences.

Definitions

They need each other since marketing creates demand and sales fulfills it. This i s a great example of a symbiotic relationship. One of the best articles I read about this uses a scene in the 2013 movie "The Wolf of Wall Street" where the main character tests someone's understanding of sales by using his fountain as an example. You can read this blog post here.

The 6 Differences 

  1. Marketing is one to many. Sales is one to one. I wrote an earlier post and put my version of a funnel in it to illustrate this. You can find it at Is Sales a Part of Marketing .
  2. Marketing is data (or numbers) driven. Sales is relationship driven. When you choose your target market you often choose by the number of potential clients in this niche - start with a big number and then whittle it down to far fewer by choosing a "niche" or subset of this market.
  3. Marketing people develop product or services. Salespeople don't. Marketing includes research to find out what people want (and will pay for) and then creating it.
  4. Marketing can't be tracked. Sales can. The most successful trade show that we did with our Apple dealership was in 1986 where we tracked the number of people who came to our booth (dropped their business cards in a bowl) and how many eventually bought (we had our salespeople call, set up interviews, write proposals and close). We saw first hand how symbiotic the relationship between marketing and sales really is.
  5. Marketing looks after your brand's reputation. Sales looks after what individuals think of you.
  6. Marketing analyses the big data. Marketing brings you the average result not the specifics. Sales takes care of the ambiguities and details of each person. That can't be averaged.
  7. Marketing isn't interactive. Sales is a conversation between two people.

You can see how they're intertwined. In "big" businesses they're two separate departments who often don't interact with each other. One of the advantages you have as a solopreneur is that you do both.

 

Stay involved if you outsource marketing or sales. Be sure the people selling or marketing you understand your brand and what you stand for and believe in. Keep doing it yourself - that's one of your competitive advantages as a solopreneur!

 

Tell me whether you outsource or keep it for yourself to do.

 

Keep learning, and until next time.   


Trudy Van Buskirk

Born to Read Book Review
The Surprising Truth About Moving Others
by Daniel H. Pink

According to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics one in nine American workers are in sales. But everyone is involved in what Pink calls "non-sales selling". Teachers sell students on the value of paying attention. Doctors sell patients on a certain remedy. Even parents persuade their children to go to bed. We're all involved in selling in a broader sense - persuading, influencing and convincing others.
 
What does it mean to sell well? To quote Pink it's "... to convince someone else to part with resources - not to deprive that person, but to leave him better off in the end." That's why you should consider that everyone is selling something.

Unfortunately, when we think of sales the first word that comes to mind shows our discomfort and distaste of sales. In the "old" way of selling we are trained that ABC means always be closing. In the "new" way of selling ABC means attunement, buoyancy, clarity. Pink talks about the fact that you should use your head as much as your heart and build empathy.
  
Pink starts with a story about the last door-to-door Fuller brush salesperson in the world and then talks about how we can learn from the "best" salespeople. They believe and use sales as a conversation or a chat. He has chapters filled with practical (and  useful) exercises we can all do.

One thing we can all do is to ask better questions and listen to the answers. Don't just ask those that get a yes or no answer. Look at children. They keep asking why. Do the same.

The book makes one think ... and then do! We all sell,  don't wel!
 
Buy this book, read it and do what he suggests in it.
A Quote For You ....

"To like many people spontaneously and without effort is perhaps the greatest of all sources of personal happiness."
by Bertrand Russell
Trudy
Phone 416-778-9976 or email me at [email protected]  
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